Eight month program or Two year program? What to choose?

Many students have doubt whether to go for 8 months program, 1 year program or a 2 year program. The selection of your program impacts a lot on the duration of work permit you will get. 8 Months program are usually certificate or graduate certificate. On the other hand, diploma and advanced diploma programs are usually of 2 years. There are also few good programs for post graduate diploma credential.

What kind of course you should go for depends on what your goals are. If your sole goal is to get permanent residency (PR) then going for a two year program is the most safest option. Not that one year programs are bad but a two year one keeps you in a safer side. Let us consider two cases. One of student A who goes for a one year program and second is of student B who selects a two year program.

Student A’s Journey (With a one year program)

Most of the one year programs are of 8 months. Some programs offer full 12 months but they have internships in the last four months. When student A completes his program and applies for a post graduation work permit, he will get work permit of one year not more than that. The rules of work permit states that student can’t get work permit of more than your study duration. For e.g. if you have studied for 9 months, you can get maximum of 9 months’ work permit. But often, students are issued one year work permit with 8 months study program. Usually CIC gives three months extra to stay or to manage other documentation work with every permit. That means one year work permit is actually of 9-months and rest is the extra period given to you for your legal and documentation work.

Now, in order to get eligible for PR under express entry, A should get one year of Canadian experience (for CE class). A must get a job within like one month after finishing his studies, to be eligible to apply for PR. If he couldn’t, he will have to go back to his home country unless he got an employer who is ready to sponsor for his visa. Then, he can extend his work permit. If A gets job easily, he will work for one year, apply for PR and mostly will have enough points to get it. But he should get a good job and a position which is listed in the skill level of NOC A,B or 0. Here are his options:

• Get a good job and work there for one year and apply for PR.
• Go back home. 
• You have very less time to search for job and get Canadian experience (just one year including job. So, you will have to land a job within a month after study)

Student B’s journey (With a 2 year program)

A two year program makes you eligible for three years of work permit. Most of people who go for a two year program gets three years of work permit. There have been cases where students didn’t get three years work permit even after studying for two years but they were able to extend it later either by reapplying or writing a letter to the visa officer.

Going for a two year program will give B lot of time to find job and then get one year experience and then he can apply for PR. The only disadvantage is you will have to pay $14500-$16000 once again for your 2nd year studies. If you have interest in what you are studying, then great. Otherwise, it is not worthy to spend this much amount to learn something you have no interest in. This advice is for people whose major goal is not PR but a good career. Bottomline is, two years of study makes you:

• Eligible for three years of work permit.
• Pay one year tuition fees again.
• Keeps you in safer side
• You have lot of time to search for job and get Canadian experience required for permanent residency (3 years)

If you are confused what to go for, first think about what your goal is? What do you want? Is your main goal getting permanent residency? Do you think you are good enough with skills to land a job fast and will get one year canadian experience? Do you have finance to invest in 2nd year tuition fees? Write down it very clearly. Think about all these factors and then decide. Good luck with your study. :-)

Three Most Important Things to Land A Field Job in Canada

     Undoubtedly, Canada is one of those countries which offers great opportunities for people. Canada has become hot destination for people all over the world to immigrate, to start a new career and to start a new life. But there has been lots and lots of articles telling us how difficult it is for immigrants to land a good job or to land a field job in Canada. In this article, we are going to discuss three things every person must have which can help him get a good job in Canada.

1. Reference - 
   
     Reference is one of the most important thing for anyone's career in a developed country. One good reference could help you land your dream job which might be turning point of your career. Reference in simple language means having a good contact. In many countries, for e.g. India, using a contact to get a job is considered an act of corruption and even underqualified people get good jobs with contact. But that thing hardly happens in developed countries like Canada. To make a good contact, to have someone be your reference you must be able to show the other person that you are well skilled and qualified. Just making a contact is not enough.
   
     How does reference work? For e.g. let's say you are in good contact with someone named A. He is working in a well reputed company X. Now, when X has an opening for a position, A might recommend your name if A has trust on you, your skills and your qualifications. Company has trust in its employee and if its employee  has trust on you, you will probably have more chance to work for the company compared to the other candidates because of your reference. And that's how reference work.

     How to get good reference? Network, network, network. Networking is very important in a developed country. Attend events, seminars, workshops, etc and talk to people. Build good contact with them. The better contacts you have, better will be chances to land a good job. There are even events held specifically to build your network. They are called Networking Events. So, make sure to prepare yourself to build good network. It is advisable to read good articles, blog posts and watch videos on making a great network.

2. Canadian Experience -
 
     One of the most important thing a Canadian employer will expect you to have is Canadian Experience. Most of the people think Canadian Experience means experience of working in Canada. But in reality, it means how used to you are with the life here that you can adapt to the Canadian business culture well. Here's a great answer written by Connel Valentine on Canadian Experience : Why do so many skilled immigrants complain that they do not get jobs in Canada? He has well cleared myths of most of immigrants. Do check it out once at least. Canadian Experience would be the reason for you to land a good job or to miss a great opportunity. Most of the candidates gets the reason of rejection as not having Canadian Experience.
 
     But how can you get Canadian Experience if you are a new immigrant or if you have never worked in Canada? The answer is through internships and co-ops. Compared to the people coming on work permit directly, those coming on study permit have better chances to land internships. Just select a program which includes co-op or internship. Those coming on work permits can offer companies their volunteer work maybe on stipend or even without getting paid. You might not know but 3-4 months of volunteer work in a company could make your resume much stronger. Plus, there is a chance that they might offer you a full time position as it is better to hire a trained candidate instead of hiring other person and training him. So make sure to do some volunteer work and internships to make your resume stronger and you will surely get a good job.

3. Canadian Business English - 

     Third important thing is command over English language. Here, English language means Business English not the informal one. You might be watching a lot of English TV series but that doesn't help you get good command on Business English. Even if you have gotten 8 bands in IELTS, you will still need to work to improve your corporate professional business language. Having good command over Business English tells the employer that you will be able to easily adapt the industry, the environment and the culture of the company. This is what an employer wants. Most of immigrants are not that good with English and that is why they are stuck in survival jobs. They can speak and most probably the person on the other side would understand but that same language would never look good in a corporate world. Think about it yourself. Why would an employer hire someone who can't even adapt to their company's culture well? So, do work on English language as much as you can. Read articles. There are lots of blogs teaching you about business english, even read IELTS articles as much as you can. Here's a link of blog posts which gives you websites where you can learn more about business english. Top 10 Websites for Business English Teachers

     So these are the three important things every Canadian employer looks for in a candidate. Simple to undersand and easy to get. It just requires some efforts from your side. Master this things and nobody can stop you from getting good job in Canada. Work on making your RCB better : Reference, Canadian Experience and Business English. Make sure to check out our other related posts to learn more about Canada. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and share this post with your circle to help them also.