Violet Poon’s work has been supporting the integration of immigrants for almost 7 years through her work at the Bredin Institute, NorQuest College, and now with the Immigrant Access Fund or IAF. The mandate of IAF is to provide loans up to $10 000 to support immigrants by paying for courses or exams so they can return to the occupation they had when they lived in their home countries. These loans can greatly impact those who are new to Canada and have difficulties to access funding resources elsewhere.
Since joining the IAF on October 2011, Violet has worked closely with ERIEC to help new skilled immigrants to integrate into the Canadian workplace as well as helping them to make connections, and finding meaningful employment.
Violet shared with us the vision of IAF and why she thinks collaborations such as the one between IAF and ERIEC are important to skilled newcomers and to employers.
“I believe that providing financial support to immigrants is just one piece of the puzzle, there are additional supports that they may need. ERIEC’s Programs such as the Career Mentorship Program or Speed Career Networking assist individuals, including our IAF loan recipients, to build their networks to open doors for their job search. These programs and tools empower and enable newcomers”, she told us and added, “I see the struggles that immigrants face in getting back to the same type of professional work they did before they came to Canada. There may be lengthy licensure processes, differences in terminologies and methods compared to the work they did outside of Canada as compared to here. Connections with employers and experts in their career fields can help our loan recipients understand how their experience and skills can translate into the Canadian workplace as well as provide options for meaningful employment in the same or related industry”.
Looking forward, it is likely based on the past history of cooperation and consultation between the IAF and ERIEC will only evolve and intensify, given the increased areas of mutual support and overlap between the two organizations.
For more information, please visit the IAF website at www.iafcanada.org .