A new pilot project in New Brunswick will allow certain international students to obtain permanent residency.
Starting in April 2022, the New Brunswick government is launching a new immigration pilot project for certain international students: The Provincial Nominee Program.
This program will allow students to obtain a Canadian permanent residency after finishing their college years. It will be available for international students who aren’t currently eligible for the federal Post-Graduation Work Permit program, and who will graduate from one of the participating educational institutions: Atlantic Business College, Eastern College, McKenzie College, or Oulton College.
Students must be registered in one of 19 qualifying programs: social and community service workers, early childhood educators and assistants, educational assistants, health-care aides, home support workers, licensed practical nurses, paramedics and related occupations, medical laboratory technologists, medical laboratory technicians and pathologists’ assistants, medical administrative assistants, computer programmers and interactive media developers, web designers and developers, computer network technicians, user support technicians, accounting technicians and bookkeepers, payroll clerks, shippers and receivers, supply chain and logistics supervisors, or production logistics coordinators.
Opportunities NB (ONB), a leading business development corporation in the province, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) are the two main sponsors and developers of this program.
Although all the in-depth details about the project aren’t yet known, many students from the four colleges are already waiting for the release of the official information.
According to Dale Ritchie, president and owner of McKenzie College, the number of interested students has been growing since the announcement of the program. Ritchie says the main reason for this increase is many internationals don’t have the facilities to stay in Canada once they finish their studies. When they see new opportunities emerging, which are technically easier and faster, they feel attracted by them.
“We have a lot of students around the world asking about the program, how do they apply, what are the details,” Ritchie says. “We have been telling them we will provide more details as soon as they become available.”
In addition, Ritchie says students are attracted to Canada since it’s one of the countries with the best qualities of life and it provides many facilities and opportunities, from school to health services. Plus, N.B. is considered to be one of the cheapest provinces in Canada, which makes it even more attractive since tuition for internationals is almost twice of what nationals pay.
With the PNP program, students would be offered not only a university degree, but also a career related to their majors and, as soon as classes finish, they will already have a stable position in society.
The chance of finding a job after participating in this program is greater than graduating from any other college since the students will have a title in one of the areas mentioned above.
“These are areas where we really need employees,” Ritchie says, “and a lot of them in particular in the health care sector.”
There is a high demand in these areas since the province doesn’t really have enough personnel, mostly because students prefer to focus in different areas such as arts and law, two of the main targets.
Having a certain level of English is one of the requirements in order to enter McKenzie College, since it’s the only private accredited language school that teaches Business and Academic English in the province.
“Our English course is recognized for admission into the programs, so students don’t have to write an IELTS test,” Ritchie says.
He also says it could be easier for some students since “there are cultures who are well suited.”
Ritchie believes people from the Philippines or India have a huge background in these types of careers because some of them are part of their culture, so they turn out to be excellent employees that could help the province to develop to the fullest.
“We can see many people from India working on IT and engineering since they seem to be very suitable for these two careers,” Ritchie says.
The program will also affect positively the participant colleges since they will not only be increasing their enrollment of international students, but also, with greater recognition, they will become more prestigious schools. They will be able to ensure a better future for their graduates and a better quality of life for N.B. society.
Darcie Reidpath, president of Oulton College, says they have been eagerly waiting this pilot program since most of the private colleges don’t have the same opportunities for their students as other schools in the province.
“We have been advocating for private institutions to have access to provincial and federal programs for many years,” she says. “As we provide a great extent of career focused training, we need to be on the map for these types of options.”
Because of the extent of career focused training, Oulton College educates many of the front-line workers indispensable to many provinces, especially right now with the current pandemic.
Reidpath says domestic students alone won’t be able to meet all the human resource needs since they have increased during the last couple of years.
“A program like this allows us to attract qualified international students to these programs and keep them in the province,” Reidpath says.
Both Ritchie and Reidpath say the province is making sure the program will work properly. After taking a couple of years planning and developing the program, plus a couple of extra months because of the recent elections, the release of all the information about the program will take place in the upcoming months, including any additional eligibility requirements, how long it will last, and more.
Anyone interested in the Provincial Nominee Program that meets all the requirements can check out the participating college online at: McKenzie College, Oulton College, Atlantic Business College, Eastern College.
