Canada actively addressing the barriers to foreign credential recognition

The Minster of Human Resources and Skills Development, Diane Finley and the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, highlighted the steps being taken by the Canadian government in order to attract the best and the brightest people from all around the world and assisting these immigrants in entering the Canadian workforce more quickly.

The Minster of Human Resources and Skills Development, Diane Finley and the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, highlighted the steps being taken by the Canadian government in order to attract the best and the brightest people from all around the world and assisting these immigrants in entering the Canadian workforce more quickly.

Minister Finley said that Canada compete in a global market where the knowledge of the country’s workforce is most important to the economy and prosperity of the Canada. She said that it is for this reason that the Economic Action Plan of Canada will invest $50 million in a period of two years in order to speed up the assessing and processing of foreign credentials.

This investment comes after a meeting in January this year, during which first minister of territorial leaders unanimously agreed over taking a concrete action for developing national framework that would recognize foreign credentials faster. The same meeting asked labor ministers to develop the common framework by the end of September this year.

Minister Kenney said that the governments of the past ignored this issue and for the first time in 2007, their government established the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, in which $32.2 million was invested over a period of five years. Kenney said that at present, 330 Service Canada Centres help internationally trained professionals throughout the country to get information that is useful for them.

With the help of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office and the Foreign Credential Recognition Program, Canada is making actual progress in addressing the barriers to foreign credential recognition.