Despite glaring labour shortages in sectors like healthcare, education, and skilled trades, Canada has long favoured business students when granting international student visas.
Driving the news: A new CBC report details the severity of the mismatch, a problem that the country’s immigration agency has known about since 2018 and was flagged to the feds a year before a cap on student study permits was introduced. This has left large volumes of students coming to Canada to pursue programs with poor labour market outcomes.
- There are ~1,000 Designated Learning Institutions that enlist overseas agents to recruit students to Canadian post-secondary schools. Some lure students with false promises of economic success and a guaranteed path to permanent residency.
- In 2020-21, the average graduate employment rate for public colleges in Ontario was listed as 77%, but less than 10% were actually confirmed as employed in fields related to their program, according to Earl Blaney, an immigration consultant.
What they’re saying: “Post-secondary institutions have been in the business of creating new programs based on their ability to sell that program to international clients and the visa officer assessing the application, as opposed to prioritizing labour market needs,” says Blaney. One solution is being more upfront with potential students by setting clearer expectations sooner in the process.—LA