Calgary Journal Online

Links to Success provides training and experience necessary to obtain professional jobs for foreigners in Canada

Like many educated immigrants Kristine Aghajanoba, originally from Armenia, thought she would be able to find professional work in Canada. Aghajanoba is a certified accountant with a Masters degree in accounting, and worked for a bank in her home country.

“In the beginning I didn’t want to change my career,” says Aghajanoba.” But then I found that it’s difficult to find a job and I didn’t know of what to do. Sometimes I thought that maybe I will go to another job which is easy, and which doesn’t request the qualification or designation.”

Ekaterina Heinrich(left) and Kristine Aghajonoba share a laugh during a Links to Success class.

Photo: Asha Siad/Calgary Journal

“Before coming here I never thought that I would go for a labour job because I was a professional in my country, and I wanted to be professional here also,” says Aghajanoba.

She says, however, she realized what many immigrants find out in their first few months in Canada. Her English speaking skills were not proficient enough for a professional job, and she didn’t have any Canadian experience.  

A study done by Statistics Canada using census information from 2006 suggests that of the 284,000 employed foreign-educated immigrants who had degrees in fields of study that would normally lead to work in a regulated occupation such as medicine, law or education, only 24 per cent (68,160) worked in the occupation that matched their studies.

A study from Statistics Canada suggests that a number of foreign-educated immigrants were less likely to work in the occupational field that they studied and were more likely to work in clerical occupations and sales and service occupations. They also noted that this difference was smaller for those who lived in Canada much longer.

Through the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association and its Links to Success program, Aghajanoba says she has hopefully found a way around her struggles.

Links to Success is a 24-week program that is specifically designed for young immigrant and refugee mothers between the ages of 15 and 30 who would like to obtain professional employment in their chosen field.

The program teaches the women a range of essential skills that are needed to search for jobs in Canada such as resume and cover letter writing, interviewing skills, work/life balancing skills, and Canadian workplace etiquette.

Following 14 weeks of class work, the participants are placed in10-week paid work placements.

It also teaches them the importance of goal-setting, something that Noreen Seib, the coordinator of the Links to Success program, emphasizes when explaining the process for each student.

“We have a career counsellor that is on staff,” says Seib.  “She meets individually with each woman and they discuss what sorts of careers would be good choices for that particular person and they have to then come up with a plan of what they want to do in the short term, and what they want to be doing five years from now.”

Looks of concentration, focus, and at times giggles can be observed in the small downtown classroom.

Eleven students sit around a large oval table. From a first glance, one might think it’s a model UN because of all the different countries listed behind yellow name cards -- Sudan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia to name a few. But participants like Kristine Aghajanoba say it’s much more than that.

“Everyone in our group is different,” says Aghajanoba. “We are all from all over the world. We have different cultures, different first languages. All of us here have big potential, and everyone can be successful in their chosen career. The program helps us to be motivated, to know what we want, and to do our best to achieve goals.”

Seib adds that the program does not always find jobs for everyone.  She says some continue on with their placement, others have babies, and some even decide to go back to school.

Still, Seib says,“We would consider it very successful because what we consider success is that the women grow a lot in self-confidence. They learn the skills so that they could actually go out there and look for a job.”

And while some of the participants are more educated than others in the professional field, this program also has room for women without educational or professional experience back home, participants like Tabitha David.

Practicing small talk with some of her peers in class, Tabitha David comes off as a smart, content woman dressed in a sophisticated suit. It’s difficult to believe that she escaped a war-ravaged country eight years ago to live a better life in Canada for herself and family.

Originally from Sudan, David came to Canada in 2002, not having any prior education. She found it very difficult to adapt, but soon began taking ESL courses.

After that she began upgrading at Bow Valley College. Not knowing where to turn to after that, David resorted to a labour job.

“I worked cleaning here downtown, and I’ve done cleaning in a nursing home -- those are the jobs I’ve done here in Canada,” says David.

“I was doing them not because I love doing the job, but because I had to live and because I was unable to find other jobs I like because they needed English -- speaking English, writing English.”

Although David always put her family first, she says she knew deep down that she wanted something better.

Now enrolled in the Links to Success program, David says she has learned the fundamentals of goal setting and job searching.   

“After I finish working at the work placement I’m going to take some courses at Mount Royal University or at Bow Valley College, and after I take some of those courses then I will start taking registered nurse classes,” she says.

Both David and Aghajanoba say they feel incredibly fortunate to be able to take part in the program.

Aghajanoba explains: “Like you come here without relatives, without friends and some people are not able to continue their career and they just change their life. I think it’s very difficult. We all need somebody who knows it, and can help us in this situation.”

Links to Success has been running for over a year and a half now, and programmers say they would like to see it expand in the coming years.