# Advice and help regarding employment in Canada



## confirmer (Jul 12, 2009)

Hi all. I'm after a bit of advice on employment opportunities in western Canada. We're planning to emmigrate in a few years from the uk and would like to take a trade skill with me. Which would you advise regarding work opportunities, pay etc out of electrician or carpenter? Also are uk qualifications transferable to Canada? Places we were looking at moving to were Calgary or Vancouver areas. Thanks for any help.
Ian


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## wildcountryian (Dec 13, 2009)

confirmer said:


> Hi all. I'm after a bit of advice on employment opportunities in western Canada. We're planning to emmigrate in a few years from the uk and would like to take a trade skill with me. Which would you advise regarding work opportunities, pay etc out of electrician or carpenter? Also are uk qualifications transferable to Canada? Places we were looking at moving to were Calgary or Vancouver areas. Thanks for any help.
> Ian


Hi,

We live in Western Alberta about two hours west of Edmonton. We moved from the UK about six years ago. In Alberta right now the employment market is tough. Usually UK qualifications won't count for much. Trades probably even less as costruction is very different here. However, skilled bricklayers are usually in demand. We're coming home to the UK ASAP. If I were you I would research, research and research again. In Alberta, winters are long (up to eight months) and harsh; we recently had a stint of minus 50 C. Today its balmy at minus 15 C and the kids will be playing outside later. Vancouver is very wet. Be careful :0). And good luck.

Ian


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## madMike (Sep 2, 2009)

*Trades Cert Canada*



confirmer said:


> Hi all. I'm after a bit of advice on employment opportunities in western Canada. We're planning to emmigrate in a few years from the uk and would like to take a trade skill with me. Which would you advise regarding work opportunities, pay etc out of electrician or carpenter? Also are uk qualifications transferable to Canada? Places we were looking at moving to were Calgary or Vancouver areas. Thanks for any help.
> Ian


Canada has an apprenticeship program that covers most Trades. There are Provincial and Federal certifications available. The Federal program is known as InterProvincial or Red Seal Certification and is recognised across the country. There is also some reciprocity between Alberta and BC to recognise the various Provincial Trades certifications because there is a lot of flow of workforce between those two Provinces.

If you are certified elsewhere in the world or have Trades experience you can prove your time in a Trade and then challenge the certification exams providing you meet their criteria. Here are some links to the regulating bodies for BC and Alberta. I can't post links - google ITABC for BC and TradeSecretsAlberta for Alberta.

ITA Home - The British Columbia Industry Training Authority

tradesecrets

These links are for the home pages, if you go through the sites you will want to get info on Trades Challenges etc.

A couple of things you may want to be aware of are the differences in cost to get the same certification between the two provinces - BC will likely be cheaper.

There is a need for written documents that will support your application - they will not accept FAX'd copies. You can download the documents from the Internet and fill them in and get them signed before you come over and it will save you some frustration - just be aware that hey have a "life" as I think they are only valid for a couple of years and then they need to be done over.

I will relate my own experience with this process so that you have a grasp of what you will be dealing with. I live in Alberta now but come from BC and have moved back and forth a few times. I have a Trade of Diesel Engine Repair which is issued by BC but not recognised in Alberta. I have over 30,000 hours of hands on experience and another 30,000 hours of Supervision related to teh Trade. I went to challenge the Heavy Duty IP in Alberta last spring - cost $450 - got my papers together but they had changed teh process in the time it took to get this done and the bureaucracy was unable to proceed so they stalled. I luckily got my money back and applied in BC - where my experience was based from - submitted my papers but they were rejected as I had filled in the particulars (name etc) of the PDF files that I downloaded on the Internet prior to printing them off so that they would be neat and readable. I then sent them off to the 2 fellows that were going to sign them to get signatures, they did this and sent them back to me then I assembled the complete package and mailed it off for review.

My application was originally denied because I had filled in teh personal details on the Internet and so they were deemed as "not original" even though the signatures were all in ink. My argument when I calmed down was if they did not allow it to be done that way why did they allow the ability to do it when you viewed the PDF on their site. Eventually I won. I did not want to send the papers out to the 2 fellows again as they were on their 5 round at getting it done to the correct standard between the 2 applications.

Bottom line - read the site and figure out what you need and don't be afraid to ask them questions. 

Feel free to send a question if you need more info.

Oh yeah - likely electrician or Instrumentation for Calgary as there are lots of industrial jobs available if you don't mind travel or camp jobs. BC has broken the carpentry trade down to specialties I believe - the ITA site should have detail on that.

Mike


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

confirmer said:


> Hi all. I'm after a bit of advice on employment opportunities in western Canada. We're planning to emmigrate in a few years from the uk and would like to take a trade skill with me. Which would you advise regarding work opportunities, pay etc out of electrician or carpenter? Also are uk qualifications transferable to Canada? Places we were looking at moving to were Calgary or Vancouver areas. Thanks for any help.
> Ian


An electrician is more viable than a carpenter as they are always in demand. If you are going to qualify as one in the UK you will need to serve a full apprenticeship then work for a prescribed number of hours as a journeymen. Your qualifications will require conversion to Canadian equivalent.


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