Foreign Credentials Referral Office Established
The first phase of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO) was launched by the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on May 24, 2007.
This new office is intended to help internationally trained individuals who plan to work in Canada get their credentials assessed and recognized more rapidly.
FCRO will help people navigate through the complex system of foreign credential recognition in Canada. The office’s approach will include in-person services and dedicated phone service at 320 outlets across the country, as well as expanded online service to assist individuals identify occupations in Canada for which they may be qualified, providing them with detailed labour market information, and referring them to the appropriate regulatory body. It will also work to increase employer awareness of the processes for, and benefits of hiring internationally trained and educated professionals.
Engineers Canada, the national organization of provincial and territorial associations that regulate the practice of engineering in Canada and license the country’s professional engineers, welcomed the creation of the FCRO, saying that it is ready to work with the federal government in making the new office successful. However, it underscored the need for licensing bodies to assess educational qualifications of international engineering graduates for Canadian equivalency as early as possible in the immigration and settlement process, noting that the agency should not duplicate processes already in place, and that it should respect provincial and territorial jurisdictions and work with the licensing bodies to link assessments to licensure. "A single, central source of information is crucial to an immigrant’s success," said Marie Lemay PEng, CEO of Engineers Canada. "We look forward to the government offering a single source resource to potential immigrants so that they can make informed decisions prior to immigrating to Canada."
Engineers Canada and its constituent members have been working toward the integration of international engineering graduates through the licensing process. These efforts have mostly concentrated on the From Consideration to Integration (FC2I) project, an HRSDC-funded initiative designed to integrate these graduates into the Canadian workforce without compromising public safety or lowering professional standards. A major accomplishment of the FC2I initiative is the creation of the International Institutions and Degrees Database, an accurate, current database of recognized international engineering degrees. Engineers Canada and the provincial and territorial licensing bodies are now implementing FC2I’s recommendations.
Speaking for the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists (CCPG), CEO Ollie Bonham, P.Geo. said that the establishment of the FCRO was welcome, as it will help to quickly direct internationally trained geoscientists to the sources of information they may require when immigrating to work in Canada. "Geoscience is a highly specialised and globally focused profession that has traditionally had significant international movement of practitioners. The opening of this office provides an excellent point of first contact that geoscientists coming to Canada will require," he added.
More information on the From Consideration to Integration project is available online at www.engineerscanada.ca/fc2i. The Foreign Credentials Referral Office website can be found at www.credentials.gc.ca.