International students at Maritime Christian College of Canada are allowed to work off-campus.

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Diane Finley and the Minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning for Prince Edward Island, Richard Brown, announced a pilot expansion of the Off-Campus Work Permit (OCWP) Program for overseas students who attend the Maritime Christian College in Charlottetown.

The program will be effective immediately and all the eligible international students who are studying at the Maritime Christian College can now apply for the off-campus work permits. Earlier, only international students at public universities and colleges in the province were eligible to apply for off-campus work permits. Currently, there are three public institutions on Prince Edward Island, which are participating in the program: Holland College, the Societe educative de 1’Ile-du-Prince-Edouard, and the University of Prince Edward Island.

Minister Finley said that the government of Canada is totally committed towards helping the newcomers to succeed. She said that the new pilot program will provide an opportunity to the international students so that they can get work experience in Canada and make a contribution to the local economy. By giving the students access to off-campus work permit, Canadian institutions will also gain a competitive advantage and this will help in attracting the best and brightest international students, she added.

The Canadian government announced on April 21, 2008 that under the Post Graduation Work Permit program, for the first time, international students will be able to get an open three year work permit without any restrictions on the type of employment and without any requirement for a job offer. Students under the OCWP program can enter the post-graduation program, since the validity of the off-campus work permit is up to 90 days after completion of graduation, allowing students to apply for post-graduation jobs.

Minister Brown said that the government of Prince Edward is very pleased to expand the off-campus work permit program for overseas students. Being able to work in Canada will provide the students an opportunity to improve their language skills along with valuable experience and this will also make the province a more attractive destination for international students, Brown said.

The government of Canada and the province of Prince Edward Island agreed that only those students will be eligible for the OCWP pilot expansion that have got enrolled in the qualifying programs offered by the Maritime Christian College.

The pilot will be in place for a period of four years after which a review for the same will be conducted by the province.