Alternatives offers employment services for new immigrants in order to help facilitate their transition into the workplace. By helping them understand the workings of the local job market as well as its rules and conventions, Alternatives’ employment services enables new immigrants to improve their employability and also facilitate their acquisition of work experience.
Services Provided:
– immigrant welcome: general moral and social support as well support for settling in, including the provision of suitable recommendations for CLSC services, housing, education, accreditation and more
– translation services
– advice for refugees
– friendship and matching
– resume writing workshops
– support for obtaining reference letters and employment information
– access to job banks on the Internet
– cv tranmission via e-mail and fax
– placement service for funded internships through agreements with placement agencies
– regular workshops on job hunting techniques
– interview simulations
– placement in subsidised employment placements
Alternatives’ employment services for immigrants encourages immigrants to settle in different regions, depending on the region’s workforce needs, and it works in tight collaboration with a great number of actors including government agencies, community organizations, the city of Montreal and educational institutions.
In addition to these allocated services, Alternatives’ immigrant services provides support for refugees in all stages of their integration. THis includes addressing problems related to the claimant of refugee status and facilitation of other means of obtention of citizenship as an alternative. At the provincial level, it participates actively in the dialogue on accreditation. These talks take place at the federal, provincial and regional levels and focus issues of access to professions and trades. They have resulted in the development of a new accreditations system more appropriate to the provincial job market, favouring the acknowledgement of skills and experience acquired elsewhere.
Alternatives’ immigrant services maintains an active presence on various committees and participation in dialogues on issues of access for immigrants into professional employment as part of its daily work. It should also be noted that in keeping with our concern for equality and as well as the vision of the Ministry of Immigration, our employment services serve clients of all ethnic backgrounds. In view of the range of services and expertise we offer, our clientele has diversified in recent years to include participants from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Our participants approach us through Alternatives’ structure, and are also referred to us by governmental agencies such as the MRCI or local employment centres. The current trend encourages intervention through ‘universal’ offices that serve all ethnic communities. This trend is supported by our funders, who suggest this mode of operation to avoid the creation of groups formed within ethnic minorities or ghettoes.
