Beyond Canadian Experience Forum Looks at Bringing Newcomers' Talents to the Workplace

Written by Beyond Canadian Experience - Medial Release Thursday, 01 December 2011 13:08

A broad group of business, corporate, and community leaders are joining forces with academics to ensure that diverse talents from immigrant communities are contributing to corporate success, and according to former Ontario PC leader John Tory, the meeting couldn’t come at a better time.

Those solutions are precisely what are being sought by the Beyond “Canadian Experience" forum, at which Tory will present the keynote address. Academics from the University of Toronto will join community and corporate leaders, to share knowledge not only about the barriers facing immigrants as they attempt to enter the Canadian workforce, but also effective strategies used by major Canadian companies like CIBC to take advantage of the untapped and increasingly necessary labour resource offered by highly skilled immigrants.

The panel discussion is the brainchild of the Beyond “Canadian Experience” Project, which combines the expertise of four leading organizations on this subject, the Mennonite New Life Centre of Toronto, the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), and the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. This project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), brings together findings from two research projects that have just been completed, focusing on the hidden barriers keeping immigrants from full participation in the Canadian labour market.

After bringing their findings together, researchers from the project agree that employers’ request for “Canadian experience” is one of the most significant barriers preventing immigrants from contributing their talents to corporate success.

The meaning of “Canadian experience” is not well understood by both immigrants and employers. Employers admit that many immigrants have the hard skills (experience and expertise) required for the job. What they also need is the soft skills that will help them figure out who to know and how to be successful in the workplace more broadly.

Employers can use a variety of workplace learning approaches, including internships, mentoring, and buddy system, to create the trusting environment needed for immigrant professionals to develop soft skills specific to Canadian workplace culture. These approaches have proven beneficial for both the recently hired skilled immigrant and the employer, as immigrants use the opportunity to contribute innovative ideas and practices to corporate success.

Although a recent study found Canada to be the second most sought after destination for global immigration (after the US), Tory warns that the competition is heating up for educated, qualified workers, making forums like this one, and the results it hopes to yield, increasingly important. "Make no mistake, the global and national war for top talent is heating up," he says, "and we ignore it at our peril."

The event is open to the public, and takes place Friday, December 2 from 8:30am until 12:30 pm at Memorial Hall in the North York Civic Centre, at 5110 Yonge St.