How do I assess international academic qualifications?

Assessing a potential employee's academic credentials is difficult when they were trainied in a different country. Credential assessment services can document whether an international education is equivalent to Ontario's. Academic credential assessment is a crucial tool for employers, and should be a key component of the hiring process. World Education Services (WES) Canada offers a number of useful services for employers and is increasingly used by employers to assess the qualifications of their applicants.

World Education Services (WES)-Canada
45 Charles Street East, Suite 700
Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 1S2
Tel: (416) 972-0070
Toll Free: 1-866-343-0070
Fax: (416) 972-9004
Toll free: 1-800-937-3895
Email: canada@wes.org
http://www.wes.org/ca/

In Ontario, WES is the authorized provincial evaluation service operating with the support of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

WES-Canada converts foreign secondary and postsecondary educational qualifications into their Ontario equivalents. Document-by-document, course-by-course or customized reports are available for educational, immigration, licensing or employment purposes. Services and assessment reports are available in English and French.

There are a number of strategies that can be used to identify highly skilled internationally trained individuals. Used in conjunction with their usual hiring/recruiting strategies, employers and human resources professionals can assure themselves of finding the best applicants for their businesses.

Many community groups and settlement agencies have employment preparation and job matching programs for their clientele. In addition to being a source for qualified internationally trained professionals and tradespeople, these agencies will also be able to offer advice on how to better assess, measure and evaluate internationally trained applicants.

To find listings of these agencies in your area, visit the 211 Ontario – Access to Professions and Trades portal Directory of Services at www.211ontario.ca/apt.

Other sites that link employers to qualified internationally trained professionals are:

• The Toronto Region Immigrant Employer Council (TRIEC) - www.hireimmigrants.ca
• Internationally Trained Workers' Partnership - Ottawa (ITWP) - www.itwp.ca
• Wil Counselling and Training for Employment - www.skillsinternational.ca
• The New Canadian Project - www.newcanadians.org

Government Retraining/Job readiness programs

Job Connect is a program sponsored by the government of Ontario that may be useful to employers. Employers that operate a business in Ontario and are ready to provide on-the-job training and/or are seeking workers may benefit from Job Connect. Please call Employment Ontario at 1-888-JOB-GROW or (416) 326-5656 to discuss your hiring needs and get more information on training and employment services in your area, or read more at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/training/cepp/aboutjc.html

Need more information?

This section is new, and we expect to expand the content with your input. Send an email with your comments or suggestions to us at aptinfo@mci.gov.on.ca. Be sure to include "Employers section" in the subject of your email, to ensure the quickest response.

There are many issues facing employers when hiring internationally trained individuals. While this section may not be able to answer all of these questions or issues, we hope to be able to work with employers to make this section as informative and helpful as possible.