Welcome to New Canadians Career Quest...
Taking the right steps into the future

New Canadians Career Quest is a comprehensive, culturally anchored Career Orientation Tool for newcomers to Canada. Geared primarily to service providers, this tool also offers valuable summaries of relevant references for newcomers who can directly access electronic resources.

Our Mission
To provide timely, relevant and culturally appropriate orientation and support to newcomers who are entering the Canadian labour market. In doing so, to assist them in building their competencies and optimizing their own potential.

IMPORTANT - Session Site Map
Please visit our Session Sitemap page to review each module with a full description of what you will find there.

About The Curriculum

• This curriculum contains information that is geared to the users in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and beyond.
• Most resources are local to the K-W area, such as the educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and local community services. However, the curriculum is generic and can be adapted to the needs of any service provider in any community, by substituting similar resources local to the relevant community.
• The links listed throughout this site may become invalid due to various reasons beyond our control. However, we will do our best to update them on a regular basis. Please let us know if you come across a link which no longer exists.
• This curriculum is primarily created for Group Work but can also be used for Individual Counselling.
• The curriculum does not provide specific teaching units. Teaching units can be developed by referring to the sections on "Expectations" as well as "Cross-Cultural Notes".
• The objectives of Career Quest may be accomplished in several ways in addition to running three full modules:
  1. By incorporating the content of Module 2 into Session 1.7 of Module 1.
  2. By running Module 2 only for participates with higher level of awareness of labour market info and some job search experience.
  3. By combining Module 2 with individual sessions from Module 1 as per need.
  4. By combining Modules 2 and 3 after the delivery of the full Module 1.
  5. By running individual sessions as per need rather than organized Modules.
  6. By offering relevant topics, resources, or exercises as an introduction to job search seminars.

About the Curriculum Sessions

• Each session has up to five components: Description of Sessions, General Expectations, Specific Expectations, Cross-Cultural Notes and Sources of Information:
  1. The Description of Session defines what the session is about and what is expected from it.
  2. The General and Specific Expectations may seem to overlap, but the General Expectations only define familiarity with the information given, whereas the Specific Expectations define the level of knowledge acquired. The General Expectations define the outcomes of the session in the general sense, as the participants are exposed to a wide variety of information. The Specific Expectations define the outcomes that must be achieved in order to make the session worthwhile.
  3. Cross-Cultural Notes describe the suggestions and observations based on field notes taken during the delivery of the session to a group of newcomers.
  4. Sources of Information constitute local and general employment and counselling resources, print media, videos, local NGOs, reference books, electronic resources (mainly from the Internet).

Contact Information
For additional information or comments, please contact us at one of the numbers listed below:

Telephone: 519-579-9622

Fax: 519-579-9624

Postal Address:

YMCA Cross Cultural & Immigrant Services
Newcomer Employment Centre
800 King St. West, 3rd Floor
Kitchener, Ontario  N2G 1E8
Canada

Contact: Ubavka Ivanovic, uivanovic@kwymca.org

Funding provided by: