During my 11 o’clock tea and choccy biccy break this morning I spotted two very interesting articles about skilled immigrants as it relates to Toronto and Ontario, courtesy of the brilliant Yonge Street website/e-newsletter.

Here they are:

TRIEC celebrates skilled immigrant mentors

Immigration isn’t just a matter of navigating clearly defined legal and employment constraints: getting your paperwork in order, re-credentialling, and so on. There is also a host of soft skills — cultural conventions and communication best practices, social insight and networking capacity — that anyone needs to successfully make a transition to a new country.

Helping skilled immigrants do just that: the mentors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), who assisted 1,000 immigrants this past year via a program called The Mentoring Partnership. Mentors offer sector-specific advice (mentees and mentors are matched by occupation), but also help with the ephemeral, essential task of getting settled in a new work environment.

Full story.

Provincial and federal governments expanding opportunities for skilled immigrants

The Ontario Bridge Training Program assists skilled immigrants by providing support while they get their credentials, licenses, and professional certifications settled in their new home, and helping them find jobs in their fields once they have.

Recently, the provincial and federal governments announced that they will be “expanding and enhancing” the program over the next three years.

Details are right now scarce — representatives for Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration could not spell out any of the particulars — but we’re told that more announcements are coming soon. What we do know is that the province is putting $63.6 million into the program over three years, and the federal government is kicking in another $16.6 million; of that pot $15 million of provincial money is “additional support.”

Full story.