Immigrants make up a significant and growing share of Ottawa's workforce. Each year, thousands of highly educated professionals make Ottawa their home. Unfortunately, many of these newcomers face a difficult and lengthy transition into careers and positions commensurate with their education and skills. For some, the transition never happens.
Problems of credential recognition by professional and regulatory bodies, lack of training and upgrading opportunities, policy disconnects between federal, provincial and professional bodies, and difficulties gaining relevant Canadian employment experience are some of the difficulties facing foreign-trained professionals6. As a result, there is a wealth of available talent in Ottawa that has yet to be tapped.
There is a growing awareness among all three levels of government of the problems facing foreign-trained professionals and of the need to develop strategies to address them. For example:
The federal government cites the assessment and recognition of foreign credentials as a key challenge of its Innovation Strategy, and in its 2003 federal budget, committed $13 million over two years to work in partnership with provincial and territorial governments to address the issue.
The Ontario government recently invested $15 million in bridge training projects to provide internationally trained Ontarians with skills and knowledge to practice the profession without duplicating what they have learned elsewhere.
The integration and full utilization of foreign-trained professionals is one of 12 recommendations put forward in the Ottawa Works report, Ottawa's Workforce Development Strategy7. The city's Human Services and Talent Plans are developing strategies and initiatives to assess and recognize the credentials of foreign-trained workers.
Within the context of these initiatives, the goal of the Ottawa Foreign Trained Workers Project is to develop a community-based strategy aimed at facilitating the accreditation and integration of foreign trained workers into the Ottawa economy. To set the stage for future phases of the project, this report has provided a statistical overview of Ottawa's immigrant population, highlighting the problem of skills underutilization.