Live-in caregiver qualification questions. Experience vs education.

Hello,

Here is the situation. My mother (who is a resident of Hong Kong) is currently in Canada visiting. In Hong Kong she was a Kindergarten teacher (ages 2.5 - 5.5) for approximately 17 years. She is trying to get a job as a Live-in Caregiver for a family who has a 1 year old child. According to the website you need 1 year of consecutive experience in the past 3 years, OR 6 months of education related to the job ie. early childhood education. She has the education, she has several certifications related to early childhood education for her kindergarten teaching.

Here is the problem, she stopped working august 31st 2008 so while she has a lot of experience, it is not within the last three years. She does however have several certifications including early childhood education (teaching newborn -> 2.5 years) and others which would qualify under the "training" portion. Quote from the cic.gc.ca website:

"To claim training, it must have been [at least six months] full-time training in a classroom setting. Areas of study could be early childhood education, geriatric care, pediatric nursing or first aid."

My mother is trying to apply to this program but the prospective employer's agent responded to these qualifications with the following e-mail:

"Unfortunately everyone that I have spoken to does not think your application would be approved, mainly because of not meeting the 1 yr experience in the last 3 years. I know it doesn't seem right as you are fully qualified, but that is how the system works and where they draw the line. Head office has dealt with similar nanny experience issues and they have not had any get approved that did not meet this criteria 100%.

Sorry I don't have better news for you,"

The agent is pushing an alternative applicant due to this. I have no experience with this process, and no way to know if this is true or not. Could anyone shed some light on this situation?

I would greatly appreciate any assistance,

-Chad