[ Module 2 ] [ Checklist 2 ] [ Session 2.1 ] [ Session 2.2 ] [ Session 2.3 ] [ Session 2.4 ] [ Session 2.5 ] [ Session 2.6 ]

BEFORE YOU START: CHECKLIST 

Purpose

The purpose of this module is to assist newcomers in acquiring career-specific information. Career-specific information gives details on the profile and typical job descriptions of an occupation at different levels of complexity in an occupation. This includes: qualifications needed, introduction to the relevant terminology, employment trends, outlooks, current employment/unemployment rates, career development issues, the length of time required to access and occupation, etc. These sessions include a guest speaker or a video profile of an immigrant who has either re-entered their original occupation or optimized their previous experience while pursuing a new occupation. The intention is to help newcomers expand the range of perceived opportunities by showcasing immigrants who are now successfully employed. These newcomers will be available to share their stories as well as their previous and present concerns and successes.

General Information and Introduction
It is desirable to have a career specific session as a group information session in which facts and other information about a specific career field are shared  with the newcomers. It consists of sharing of information in three phases.

Phase 1

This is primarily an information giving phase where information is provided to participants in the form of fact sheets, definitions and terminology, labour market information, information on certification, licensing and licensing bodies.

Phase 2

The second phase provides information about other related occupational clusters and other occupation, where similar transferable skills can be applied.

Phase 3

The third phase involves sharing information in a Group Session with the  foreign-trained resource persons who have been successful in their desired occupations in Canada.

This process provides a complete overview of the professional field in the Canadian/Ontario context including the experiential information that is rarely found in any document.

Important Note:
Unlike in the previous module, here, all six suggested sessions have common general and specific expectations. Each suggested session is specific to a relatively large cluster of occupations. When organizing career-specific employment and career orientation please refer to the general information provided below and add adequate resources and links listed under each cluster heading. In addition to the resources we are offering a selection of resumes provided by employment support programs for newcomers from the K-W region. These resumes are a good illustration of how newcomers make their first entries into a field and how they market their transferable skills.

General Expectations or Outcomes of this Module
Participants collect information about:

• A career-specific area including its terminology, labour market information, certification and licensing, licensing body, labour market information
• Complete description of an occupational profile
• Information about other related occupational clusters in the same field
• Information about transferable skills from this field that can be applied to entry level or transitional occupations in a related or unrelated field
• Experiential information/anecdotes from the resource people (first hand information from a role model)

Specific Expectations from Module 2
Participants will understand:

• A job description, training and educational requirements, labour market information and licensing/certification information about a typical profession in the field
• Similarities or differences between different occupations in the same field
• Common transferable skills that can be applied to other occupations (related as well as unrelated)
• First hand experiential information/anecdotes from the resource people that are not in written form anywhere

Cross-Cultural Notes

• Most of the participants who complete General Employment and Career Orientation sessions require some follow-up to Career Specific information. As different newcomers have different interests, it may not be easy to get a sufficient number of participants interested in specific career clusters to warrant group delivery. There are at least two options to resolve this issue: One is to look at the ways of bringing together people with a broader range of skills (i.e. medical doctors and medical technologists, or health professionals). Another option may be to organize a session according to career preferences rather than career backgrounds.
• It is desirable to have an information circle on a specific occupation, where participants and the presenters are sitting in a circle. The presenter is usually a new Canadian who has been trained in a foreign country, but has now successfully made a transition to a desirable occupation in Canada. There can be more than one presenter in a session. The participants listen to the presenter and get first hand information about his/her new career and how and where he/she received that training and what was the cost involved. The participants also learn about the barriers the resource person faced in achieving the desirable goal and how those barriers were overcome. This exercise is often inspiring and motivational for newcomers. The information shared in these sessions is extremely valuable and often bridges the gap of information that is often inaccessible. It covers the gray areas of the certification and licensing process that is not written down in black and white.
• Fact sheets and written information about obtaining licensing and certification should be used as a guide as the experiences of people differ from person to person, particularly in the teaching profession.

Objective
To increase the participants' ability to define their own career options by offering a range of occupational choices within a cluster of occupations (NOC).

Learning Outcomes/Measures
Participants are able to identify two to three occupations that optimize their previous experience. The choices reflect different levels of complexity to accommodate the needs for language improvement, technological upgrading or new career training.

Methods
Multi-Dimensional, Information and Orientation sessions.

Techniques

• Guest speakers
• Lectures
• Video and computer presentaions and participatory exercises
• An Informational Interview (Individual or in Group)

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Evaluation
The outcome evaluation information is to be gathered from the participants at the end of each individual session and again at the end of the program. Please refer to the attached evaluation forms.

Length
Three to five hours with guest speakers.

Participation
15 to 20 participants per session.

Possible Settings

• Employment Training Programs

• ESL classrooms

• Settlement agencies

• Employment support programs

• Colleges and universities with immigrant students, and various training programs
  

Participant Profile

• Newcomers facing barries finding employment ("Not Yet Ready" to engage in job search)
• ESL learners
• Newcomers with or without work experience and with unclear career goals
• Newcomers attending training programs
• Newcomers in the process of changing careers
• The participants have to be able to independently collect labour market information prior to attending.

Language Eligibility
Canadian Benchmark Levels 4 and up.

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