Canada wants to help newcomers find work and keep their jobs through a new program that calls for job retention ideas.
Our Multicultural Association’s Anita Muggeridge feels one area that could use some work is funding for travelling to accreditation testing centres which are typically far away from Thunder Bay.
“It’s a huge factor cause you’ve come and you’ve settled here, and now you have to travel again, who is paying for that? Well, the newcomer has to pay for that as well, there are fees involved, you’ve just settled in one new city, and now you’ve got to go to another city for who knows how long. It’s a big factor.,” says Muggeridge.
The federal government announced Thursday funding of up to 10 million for 15 projects to help newcomers find work. Multicultural Associations like ours are invited to pitch their ideas to the government.
Muggeridge adds a job coach who would accompany a newcomer to their place of employment would also be welcomed here in Thunder Bay.
“They would come with them for the first few days, the first few weeks just to help them transition to a Canadian work environment. Many of them have come from a very different work life, many countries don’t have a nine to five work day but we do. The camaraderie that happens on a work site, what is that like, to some people that is very foreign to them.”
