In a move that could open the doors for skilled
professionals in Canada’s technology sector, the province of British Columbia
is looking at India in a big way to rope in talent under its provincial nominee
programme.
The programme enables the provincial government
to nominate over 6,000 people every year to the federal government for
permanent residency in British Columbia, based on an online points system that
assesses the applicant’s work experience, language skills and education, among
other factors.
“There is clearly a gap in demand and supply of
technology professionals in BC, considering the large number of startups that
exist here,” said Fazil Mihlar, deputy minister in the ministry of jobs, trade
and technology in BC.
Mihlar, who addressed media from the US, the
UK, India and China ahead of the fourth BC Tech
Summit, 2018, said the province would need over 80,000 jobs in the next 10
years across sectors.
“India with its huge talent pool of required
skill sets can be a big source of professionals and skilled personnel for our
companies in BC,” Mihlar added.
The top countries for the citizenship for
nominees programme in 2017 were India, China, South Korea, Australia and the
UK. Those with jobs in the tech sector represented 16% of all nominees last
year.
While the minimum application processing time
for immigrants under this programme could be two to four months, for the
tech-pilot programme it could be two to three weeks, Mihlar said.
“In the fourth digital revolution, jobs find
people if you have talent and skilled workforce,”
said Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education at Microsoft.
The BCTech Summit is the largest technology
conference in western Canada showcasing the province’s technology and
innovation sectors. It is jointly
organised by the BC Innovation Council and the government of BC.
No comments:
Post a Comment