Much has been said about role of health care workers in supporting Canadian society as the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the country. Stressed healthcare workers across Canadian hospitals worked overtime in crowded conditions, as ICU hospitals filled to maximum capacity in some of the biggest hospitals.
Over the past 2 years, these pressures resulted in serious health care worker shortages that have prompted the Canadian government to at least partially address these issues by forming the National Newcomer Navigation Network . Launched in 2019, the program aims to help internationally educated health care professionals to get their credentials recognized earlier, leading to faster immigration streams for both temporary foreign workers and those applying through the Express Entry program for permanent residency in Canada.
As of June 6, 2022, Canada’s Immigration Minister Seam Fraser has announced an additional 1.5 million in funding for the program, mainly towards promoting better collaboration and information sharing. Currently, the National Newcomer Navigation Network, or N4 for short, provides a number of useful tools including a specialized toolkit for Afghan and Ukrainian medical professionals. In addition to helping these international healthcare professionals work in Canada, the additional funds will allow the platform to serve as useful resource for finding information on foreign qualification and credentials recognized in all provinces and territories outside Quebec.
Even as Canada’s unemployment rate has reached a record low of 5.1% as of June 2022, there are still over 1 million job vacancies across Canada with over 150k vacancies in the health sector alone. This is great news for internationally educated healthcare professionals who are seeing to work and immigrate to Canada.
If you are an internationally educated health care worker, you can fill out our free assessment to see if you might qualify for any of the programs available across Canada.