Canada to hold online job fair on 19-20 April

Canada is holding its largest Virtual Career Expo on 19-20 April, which will make available fifteen hundred jobs, most of them in IT, for highly-skilled overseas and Canadian workers. More than 50 companies from Canadian cities will take part in this expo, including Microsoft, the Bank of Montreal, IBM and Pythian.

 

It will be jointly hosted by the In-TAC (International Talent Acquisition Centre), Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia and Immigrant Services of Calgary. The country’s federal government is also extending its support to the job fair.

 

Ying Xie, In-TAC’s Senior Manager, was quoted by the press release of In-TAC as saying that the IT sector badly requires world-class talent that is not available in this North American country. He added that they found this new way of hiring people highly effective.

 

A survey by the ICTC (Information and Communications Technology Council) revealed that over 53 percent of Canadian businesses saying that attracting skilled workers and retaining them was one of their major challenges. The ICTC’s Labour Market Outlook shows that 216,000 technology Jobs in Canada need to be filled by 2021.  In its report, the ICTC said that evolving and fast advancements in technology are creating this massive demand for ICT professionals

 

Although ICTC suggests more training for youngsters to tackle the gaps in IT skills, because of the falling population of Canada, it says, a key role will be played by immigrants in filling the tech talent shortage. At present, immigrants account for more than 33 percent of Canada’s ICT workforce.

 

It has been proposed by the ICTC that Canada should come up with policies and plans to make it simpler for companies to hire overseas talent as soon as possible.

 

The federal government in November 2017 had announced ideas to help fix the skills shortages by inviting 310,000 foreigners to Canada in 2018, which would grow to about 340,000 in 2020.

 

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship), said that this historic plan of multi-year immigration levels will prove to be beneficial to all Canadians as immigrants will help spur the country’s innovation and economic growth, helping to maintain Canada’s position in the forefront of the global economy.

 

The website of Virtual Career Expo will provide employers access to job applicants from registered candidates from the world over. If employees think they might have found a suitable candidate, the employer and the prospective employee would be able to chat virtually in a 3-D environment that is akin to an exhibition hall.

 

Xie feels it is win-win for both parties. While employers can save the costs of transportation and advertisements at on-site events. Job seekers can talk to their prospective employers from wherever they are.

 

Xie said that they encourage both employees and employers to avail this opportunity to grow their staffing and job scouting tactics. He added that they hope that employers will find the kind of employees they want without any additional expenses, and international talent can get jobs of their choice without additional costs.

 

Since the virtual job expo began in 2016, more than 4,000 overseas skilled workers from over 80 countries have reportedly taken part in the Virtual Career Expo conducted by In-TAC.

 

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