CAREER TRANSITIONS- A NEW
PROGRAM FOR INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL GRADUATES
(IMGs) IN ONTARIO
For immediate release
February 28, 2005, Hamilton, Ontario-The Hamilton-based Settlement and Integration Services Organization (SISO), in partnership with the Association of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (AIPSO), Catholic Immigration Centre and World Skills (Ottawa), and Skills for Change (Toronto), has recently received funding from the Access to Professions and Trades Unit of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, for the development of a new program to bridge internationally trained physicians/medical graduates (IMGs) into alternative employment in the health care sector.
This new bridging program will assist participants to identify and further develop skills and experience that can be transferred to other health sector occupations and will give IMGs access to retraining opportunities and options for work that will allow them to effectively use their skills. Furthermore, opportunities will be developed for mentoring and job shadowing with local employers.
According to Mary Anne Chambers (Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities), the project will “help unemployed and underemployed graduates access the information they require to make informed choices about other career options in the health sector.” Hector Fernandez, vice – president of the Association of International Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (AIPSO), said that “The project will enhance the opportunities to work in health-related fields and use the skills and knowledge brought by international medical graduates committing their skills and experience to our economy.”
Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 IMGs who are permanent residents or Canadian citizens live in Ontario, and it is estimated that at least a few hundred live in Hamilton and its environs. Activities in the first phase of the project include an update of the existing database and surveys with IMGs about their career goals and types of alternative employment in those non-regulated health care fields that they would be interested in. Essential information on a number of non-regulated health professions in Ontario will be documented. Additional benefits to IMGs include: establishment of professional contacts; opportunity to maintain and enhance essential skills; building a professional work history in Canada.
Project activities will also concentrate on the establishment of formal partnerships with employers in the Hamilton health care sector, to identify and access employment opportunities in a timely and expeditious manner. Health sector employers will have access to the human resource potential that IMGs represent, and will be supported in the process of formulating effective methods of utilising IMGs to meet their immediate and long-term human resource needs in non-regulated occupations.
