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CIC has announced the three-pronged approach to the Canadian immigration program, largely affecting the Federal Skilled Worker Programme.

The Canadian government has announced proposed amendments to Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), which include changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Class (FSWC) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), as well as it introduces a new Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC).

This was reported by various regulated immigration consultants, although the official government body Citizenship & Immigration Canada (CIC) has not yet published the news on its website.

The proposed amendments are referred to as the three-pronged approach, but mostly affects the FSWC, Canada’s flagship Immigration selection programme.

According to Deepak Kohli, President of Transcend Consultants, a regulated Canadian-based immigration consultancy office, the new FSW programme is likely to favour immigrants who are younger, have Canadian work experience and better language skills.

“The new Federal Skilled Worker Class (FSWC) will require the applicants to be assessed against the revised selection grid that gives more weight to proficiency in one of the two Canada’s official languages (English or French), and prefers younger applicants, while giving lower weight to work experience outside of Canada,” Deepak explained.

The second prong of the change includes revision to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), tells Deepak. The minimum work experience requirements will be brought back to 12 months instead of 24 and language requirements will be streamlined with these regulations.

The third prong is the introduction of the Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC).

“The new FSTC would be open to skilled tradespersons with experience in the occupational areas such as industrial, electrical and construction trades; maintenance and equipment operation trades; supervisors and technical occupations in natural resources, agriculture and related production; processing, manufacturing and utilities supervisors and central control operators; as well as chefs and cooks, and bakers and butchers.

“Applicants to the proposed program would be required to meet four minimum requirements that include ability to work in one of the trades (job offer or assessed qualifications); proficiency in official languages; previous work experience in the selected trades and meet the employment requirements of the selected trade.” The regulations are expected to be implemented in January 2012 but may be revised based on public consultations.

The new FSWC selection grid:

FACTOR                                POINTS-PREVIOUS              POINTS-PROPOSED

Language                                         24                                           28
Education                                         25                                            25
Experience                                       21                                            15
Age                                                10                                             12
Arranged employment                      10                                             10
Adaptibility                                      10                                            10
 

TOTAL                                              100                                         100