No Canadian experience. Many newcomers hear these disappointing and discouraging words as the
y search for work after arriving in Canada. It also was Ayesha Mohamed’s experience after moving to Canada.
Ayesha and her husband Nouman and children arrived in May 2017 as permanent residents from India and first settled in Vancouver. While Nouman was able to find a job, there weren’t opportunities for growth that he was looking for, so the family pulled up stakes once again and came to Toronto in 2019. Nouman found work in Customer Care at a bank while Ayesha stayed home to look after their two young children.
When Zoey, age four and Zachariah, age two, were in school and daycare full-time, Ayesha put her drive and determination to work to find a job but encountered the ‘no Canadian experience’ brick wall.
“When I first came to Toronto, I thought getting a job here would not be difficult. After all, I had a post-graduate degree from a reputed university in India and diverse experience in different fields, but I was wrong. Every time I applied for Jobs. I was asked for Canadian experience, Canadian references and a Canadian degree or certification. Although I knew I had the drive to succeed in any job, I couldn’t back it up with anything the employers asked for,” she said.
Ayesha learned about the Business Office Skills (BOS) program from a former participant. BOS is a free, 12-week full-time training program for women (most are newcomers but not all). It is offered in partnership with Centennial College and Neighbourhood Link Support Services and combines instructor-led training and hands-on experience in administrative or customer service positions. Participants complete a 100-hour work placement with partner agencies in the Toronto area. Upon completion, graduates receive transferable college credits and certification from Centennial College.
In September 2019, Ayesha and 13 other women embarked on a journey that she described as a “journey of continuous education, a journey to improve and enhance our skills, to sharpen our saws and to see a new light of knowledge.”
The program delivered was more than what they expected. “When we all were accepted into the program, we came thinking we would have just ‘a 12-week course’ to learn. Little did we know we were given so many diverse options in this curriculum from classroom training to on the job training to various workshops,” she said. “It gave us empowerment through building our network, enlightening us with various workshops, and working on our skills for interviews, public speaking and presentations.”
There’s no denying that BOS had a significant impact on Ayesha’s subsequent job search, “When I recently went to interview for a job, I had an iron-clad resume and was accepted by a very reputed organization,” she said. Her first Canadian job is a contract position as an Administrative Assistant with CAAT Pension Plan. She feels that with the skills the program gave her and the one year of Canadian experience, she will quickly find another position at the end of this contract.
Ayesha was so successful in the BOS program that she was the class valedictorian. She thanked both Centennial College and New Circles for offering the Business Office Skills program “to support and upgrade women.”
Speaking to her fellow BOS graduates, Ayesha summarized the hope of every newcomer to Canada with the following words, “Now I know all of us had our reasons to pursue this course even though everyone had challenges back home, but we all had one common goal, to make a difference in our lives, to have a successful career, hence in the famous words of Walt Disney, ‘All our dreams can come true if we dare to pursue them.'”
Hats off to Ayesha and all the other courageous women!