A matter of (right) experience

This is something that has been stuck in my mind for a while: a post on the so-called Canadian experience. An e-mail I’ve gotten today acted like the trigger to turn my thoughts into words.

A friend I’m in touch with is finding very hard time to get a job as an architect in Vancouver. She’s Spanish, with years of experience. Nevertheless, after months of search she has found only in these days a job as a… waitress.

It is my understanding it is not a lonely case. The more I talk with people the more I hear stories of well-educated and widely experienced professionals who can’t simply find a job related to their experience in Canada. Architects, engineers, doctors, biologists, accountants: it doesn’t matter what they’ve done and whether the job market needs them, it only matters they haven’t studied/worked in Canada, and that’s more than enough to exclude them from the market.

Once I even heard on the TV news the issue of some born-Canadians who graduated in medicine in prestigious universities in UK and now are not allowed to work as doctors in BC, that has a chronic shortage of health workers.

I’m yet to take a taxi here, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the Indian driver has a PhD in molecular biology or something like that. Only for IT people things appear to be easier.

I know this problem is widely known and discussed in Canada. Yet it seems a solution is still far to come.

A Canadian colleague of mine claims this is the way the government uses to “punish” people not to have spent money with a Canadian university.

I honestly don’t believe so, but I noticed a big contradiction in the whole system: a degree brings you more points to get qualified to immigrate to Canada, but at the same time proves to be useless when you search for a job. In other words it’s good to get in but not to stay, and that really makes no sense.

My thought is that Canada is shooting itself on a foot. Natural resources are important (and this land has a lot) but brains are more: just imagine what could happen if this country could combine the appeal of a very high quality of life with the ease to see your merit and credentials appreciated even if you come from overseas.

I guess there would be many professionals coming from all over the world happy to get a lighter payslip (compared to USA for example) just to enjoy a magnificent nature and safe cities where to settle down.

In a globalized world the arena is the contribute people can bring in terms of creativity and new ideas.

South Korea for example hugely invested in education, and it is now one of the wealthiest countries in Asia, performing very well despite of the global recession, and it’s probably leading worldwide research on cancer.

Canada has far more potential to attract talents, given there wouldn’t be a language barrier like in South Korea and there are multicultural cities and wonderful landscapes.

It’s time for this country to turn Canadian experience into Relevant Experience.

Hurry up Canada, open your job market and get filled up with talents!