Canada bares new occupation list under 3 employment programs

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MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Wednesday said Canada has released a new list of eligible occupations under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FWSP), Federal Skilled Trade Program (FSTP), and Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

“The Canadian government has increased the number of eligible occupations under these three employment and permanent residency programs for this year, as well as, the number of applications they will accept,” Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday said, quoting a report of Labor Attache to Toronto Leonida V. Romulo.

In said report, Romulo said this year’s batch will be the last batch of applications the Canadian government will accept under the current employment system for foreign workers before the 2015 launch of the Express Entry, Canada’s new active recruitment model for economic migration.

Under the FWSP, workers have the opportunity to qualify as permanent residents based on their ability to succeed in Canada. They are assessed according to their education, language skills, work experience, age, arranged employment, and adaptability.

Applicants must have at least one year of continuous full-time or equivalent paid work experience in the past 10 years in one of the eligible occupations; qualify for an arranged employment, where a Canadian employer has extended to the applicant an offer of full-time permanent employment; have completed a doctoral degree in Canada, or have completed two years of study in Canada towards a PhD, in both cases, at a recognized institution; and pass a minimum threshold of language ability for one of Canada’s two official languages, English or French.

Effective May 1, 2014, the FSWP will be accepting an overall total of 25,000 new applications and 1,000 applications on each of the 50 eligible occupations. Under the PhD eligibility stream, 500 applications will be accepted. Interested applicants must have at least one year of work experience in one of the said occupations.

There would be no limit on the number of applicants who have a valid job offer from a Canadian employer.

A complete list of the 50 eligible occupations under the FSWP can be found at the Canada Immigration and Citizenship newsletter’s website, www.cicnews.com.

On the other hand, a total of 5,000 applications will be accepted under the FSTP, where workers can become Canada’s permanent residents based on being qualified in a skilled trade.

One hundred applications for each skilled trades will be accepted under the FSTP—industrial, electrical, and construction trades; maintenance and equipment operation trades; supervisors and technical occupations in national resources, agriculture, and related production; processing, manufacturing, and utilities supervisors, and central control operators; chefs and cooks; and butchers and bakers.

Lastly, workers who already have one year of authorized and skilled work experience in Canada and want to be permanent residents can take advantage of the CEC.

The Canadian National Occupational Classification (CNOC) defines skilled work experience as those falling under managerial, professional, technical jobs, and skilled trades.

For this year, Canada will be accepting 8,000 applications. However, six occupations were declared ineligible for CEC this year — administrative assistants, accounting technicians/bookkeepers, cooks, food service supervisors, and retail sales supervisors.

Meanwhile, Baldoz cautioned Filipinos who qualify and are interested to apply in one of the programs mentioned earlier against illegal recruiters.

“They must ensure that they are dealing with legitimate and legal recruiters and not to fall prey to unscrupulous individuals who will take advantage of them. They can always check with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) website to see if the recruitment agency they are dealing with has a valid license to operate,” Baldoz said, adding:

“I also want to appeal to those who are planning to apply for a job, not only in Canada, but in other countries also, not to be tempted to enter other countries through illegal means to avoid negative consequences of such actions.”