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Ph. D. in Pizza Delivery

Remembrance of things past: during the interview at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow the high-ranking official questioned my motives for immigration to Canada. My answer was that I hoped to implement ideas and projects I had not managed to push through the red tape in my own country. I was fully expecting to make myself useful for the new country.

Obviously, the majority of well-qualified independent immigrants responded to that "why"-question in the same manner, or, perhaps, they had thought it over similarly.

The Canadian Government strives to attract to Canada educated, skilled and experienced specialists. The Ministry of Immigration has this concept at the very core of its practice. The increasing intake of highly skilled immigrants to Canada is both a blessing and a serious challenge for the country. The adaptation of such kind of newcomers demands for special approach that would help to reveal their potentialities and to boost the country's economy.

Are the authorities of different levels ready to realize these stiff goals? Do they fully understand the problems of new immigrants? The questions are far from rhetorical. Not only the individual fortunes of immigrants hinge on these issues, but also the efficiency of the Canadian economy and society depends on them.

Let's put things to rights, a great deal has been done to facilitate adaptation of immigrants to the Canadian environment. New governmental structures, well equipped Employment Resource centres, the programs that combine in-school instruction along with co-operative education experience, language courses: taken together these initiatives give a good indication of the undertaking of wide scope focused on immigrants' issues.

Despite the authorities' mounted efforts and solid investments, many of highly qualified immigrants have failed to gain recognition in Canada. They have been working at the "wrong jobs", which do not fully take account of their competence. Some of these personalities may be met among pizza deliverymen, gas station attendants and general labourers.

Many years from now John Ruskin noted: "In order that people may be happy in their work, … They must be fit for it: They must not do too much of it: And they must have a sense of success in it." Well, it is typical of life to rule out the philosophizing. The downgraded former specialists are not happy. It is beyond reason to hope that the Canadian economy benefits from employing a specialist as an unskilled labourer. Probably, something is not ticking well in the powerful adaptation mechanism.

The most pronounced and complicated issue that is not always grasped by those who has been trained in Canada or in the US is the matter of newcomers' "professional orientation". This problem springs from a number of distinctions between occupational classifications in Canada and abroad.

There are more than 10,000 job tiles in the National Occupational Classification of Canada. Many of them are different from those of the foreign occupational classifications. Thus, job title (and relevant diploma) of the HVAC engineer from another country corresponds to the Mechanical engineer title and diploma in Canada. Naturally, this gives birth to variations in employment requirements here and there.

The representatives of blue-collar jobs come up against the classification gap, but to a lesser degree.

Usually, a foreign educated specialist is capable of working in several adjacent occupational fields. In practice, having come to Canada he runs into difficulties with defining his potential position and relevant scope of duties. This mismatch reflects on the validity of the specialist's resume and makes itself evident at the interview. While introducing himself to the employer this job seeker gives his interlocutor to understand that he is poorly acquainted with the local specifics and is not qualified for work. Only disadvantages can be gained from such contact. The employer makes short work of the applicant trying to screen himself from him with the essential requirement of Canadian experience.

Proper "orientation" is an all-important step on the road of professional and social adaptation. An immigrant should conduct a full-scale study in order to establish himself and to make progress in Canada.

Nobody expects new problems to be cracked in a moment, but an initial endeavour is of importance. Therefore in the midst of immigrants a bunch of individuals that shared the idea of assistance to those seeking professional employment has been brought together. In the year 1991 they established organization named Alliance of Technical and Science Specialists of Toronto (ATSS), registered as a non-profit corporation in 1993. Very soon ATSS gained popularity among immigrants and, owing to support of other voluntary organisations, succeeded in rendering vital services to a number of newcomers.

The activists of ATSS became aware from their own experience of a stumbling block named "professional orientation". They decided to contribute to the understanding and solving this problem. In 1996 the developers from ATSS have worked up software to facilitate the cumbersome process of "professional orientation". The original idea behind the computer program and advanced methodology is to consider the education and work experience of foreign-trained specialist as a "tool-kit", where for every kind of "tool" - skill may be found an appropriate "application" - occupation in Canada. The personal set of skills that suited to the requirements of the market in large part is suggested as the main line of inquiry. This group of skills short-listed from a primary source and placed together by the program does not totally cover occupational diploma that a specialist has brought to Canada, but may be fruitful.

The developers of the "professional orientation" method and software and specialists that tried it out are of the opinion that it may be an added bonus to the procedures for the assessment of foreign qualifications.

Having exhausted the potentialities of do-it-yourself mode of research, ATSS applied to the governmental institutions for support and help. From this point on the delegates of ATSS have been roaming around in the corridors of power, where on one hand their request is not refused, on the other hand decision is not made.

Meanwhile, through the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities the Ontario government perceived a formal assessment of foreign diplomas based on comparison of obtained credentials to Ontario educational standards as an ultimate form of making it easier for foreign educated and experienced immigrants to join the labour market. The assessment technique is as plain as a pikestaff: "document by document" or "course by course". As a consequence of assessment procedure, you may become aware that your second university degree is recognised as first university degree in Ontario, or, to make matters worse, that you are a bearer of an intermediate degree somewhere between a bachelor and a master.

This assessment may have an unfortunate sequel. The cases in point exist in sufficient numbers. To take one example, Mr. N. has graduated from foreign University with a degree in mechanical engineering and major in mathematics. Before he came to Canada, he had been working as Systems Analyst. Like good many of specialists-newcomers, he hurried to make a credential assessment. His diploma was evaluated and recognised as the mechanical engineer's. Having great expectations for his future, Mr. N. started looking for a programmer job, but all his attempts to attract an interest of employers in his person were in vain. His applications for software engineer position supported by diploma of mechanical engineer were doubted. Mr. N. had been nursing a grudge against entire world. He suffered hardships, stress and apathy, and finally got an operator job at the Computer centre of some company.

Academic credential assessment service can under certain circumstances be required. Under different conditions there is no sense in it at all. It is our strong belief that "professional orientation" study must precede credential assessment. It would determine exactly what credits to assess. As a rule, a list of credits allows to make it in essence and not as a tribute to formalism.

So far academic institutions offered credential assessment service, the immigrants were getting their documents on the chip - only $100 per assessment. Then the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities decided that the local Universities were no longer competitive in this service and the contract was awarded to the American company that "best demonstrated an understanding of Ontario education and training systems and institutions". Using the same strategy like the predecessors, but this time the computerised one, the company performs formal credential assessments. The cost ranges between $100 and $200 per service.

We are witnessing the transformation of credential assessment procedure into commercial service, contrary to the opinion of international organisations. Thus the Working Group on Criteria and Procedures for Assessment of Foreign Qualifications (UNESCO) reasoned that "the competent recognition authorities and other assessment agencies should consider whether it is possible to provide for assessment of foreign qualifications as a public service free of charge. Where this is not feasible, fees should be kept as low as possible and should not be so high as to constitute a barrier to the assessment of foreign qualifications."

The immigrants pay good money for assessment reports and then grasp the realities of the situation - they will not be able to put this document to good use in the new job.

Reducing the gap between immigrants and labour market is one of the main challenges facing the governmental organisations. This gap may be effectively bridged over with "professional orientation" offered by ATSS. Without such assistance, the transition from the work place in their native countries the Canadian work place often proves very difficult for these professionals. It must be a through process from filing application for permanent residence to professional employment in Canada. No one specialist should be lost in this process, for his or her experience is unique and may become a weighty contribution to the Canadian economy.

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Ph. D. in Pizza Delivery