IELTS, Jobs in Canada, etc

[rupeshhari]

Yesterday, I met a Canadian who has about 1000 employees and is looking to hire 200 more soon and we got into the discussion about my PR application, language proficiency, this forum, etc and finally the topic came to employing immigrants. My conversation couldn't have come at a better time. I had received numerous PM last night of which I couldn't understand many (not all were bad).

He said, he had no problem employing immigrants in general. The one experience he has had with all immigrants that he had hired was their ability in English. He knew about the IELTS exam. He said, while a 10 (as an example) might get a person into Canada, but not into a job in his company. He said, that lots of people are happy when they meet the requirement for immigration that language proficiency is not important to them after they meet the hurdle (67 points). They then forget about improving their English. This makes them quite unemployable. He is sure, a lot of private companies feel the same. He took pains to insist that not all immigrants have bad English but the ones with not-so-good English may struggle.

So learn English even if you get 67 points. Ultimately, that will determine how accessible you are to other people in Canada and could make life a LOT easier.

 

[Leon]

You are absolutely right. Language proficiency is maybe not that important to somebody who is working in a company with other immigrants who are all from the same place but that's about the only time it doesn't matter. Say that company goes belly up and they all have to find a new job. Too bad. To be able to work with other people in the company, everybody needs to be able to understand each other. To be able to talk to clients, they also need to be able to understand the client and make him understand them. Some people understand English very well but pronounce it very badly. Others speak it pretty well but lack vocabulary so if you say something too complicated, they don't understand.

 

[BobbyB]

So, is it safe to say that IELTS is not the right tool for measuring proficiency??

 

[rupeshhari]

BobbyB, to answer your question, the answer is yes and no.

Language proficiency really depends on what you want to do (as Leon said).

If a medical doctor wants to go to Canada and work on a factory line (say where not much communication is needed), then the person can be economically active and the language proficiency of a mediocre IELTS score may be okay. With that score, the person should be able to do shopping, catch a bus, etc and still socialize with other (particularly with people from the same country).

However, if the medical doctor wants to go to Canada and be a medical doctor with a low IELTS score, communication with patients might be hard.

Remember, CIC is looking to see whether the person will be economically active in Canada, they are not that concerned with how active the person will be or whether the person gets their dream job.

 

[Leon]

I have never taken IELTS and so I have no idea how accurately it measures your English knowledge but if some employers are saying that a mediocre score on IELTS is not enough to get a job by them, then I guess you'd have to have a good score. For 67 points, as long as you score high on other aspects, you might not even need any points for English. You could get in without any. Could you get a job though? Probably not.

Even somebody who works in a factory needs basic english. I knew of a TFW who showed up in his workplace with no english and since the foreman said he can't even tell the guy to sweep the floor because he can't understand, he lost the job. And even if a factory worker has basic English, it wouldn't hurt him to learn a bit more and might help him get a better job later on.

 

[rupeshhari]

oh i agree with you, thats why i qualified the factory work in a job that doesn't require communication. Most factory jobs have safety issue. Imagine someone not understanding when something goes wrong.

So the guy I met never said that he asks anyone for their IELTS score. He was just saying that many people move in with low scores and then do badly in interview or during job performance.

I agree with Leon, it never hurts to learn more.

 

[BobbyB]

"I agree with Leon, it never hurts to learn more".- Of course not. I agree with you both.
I was only trying to get some information to justify the point people try to make by saying that CIC requires only ( and of course refers you back to IELTS) irrespective of whatever you write to explain about your proficiency in English, even if you have lived and worked for years in an English speaking country like the UK, US, Australia etc..

 

[mahharrouf]

Repesh, can you please empty your box? i wanna send you one message but unable to do " Error returns - your inbox is full", Thanks

 

[rupeshhari]

ok, will clear up some messages. i havent answered a lot so cannot delete the unanswered once.

 

[Leon]

"I agree with Leon, it never hurts to learn more".- Of course not. I agree with you both.
I was only trying to get some information to justify the point people try to make by saying that CIC requires only ( and of course refers you back to IELTS) irrespective of whatever you write to explain about your proficiency in English, even if you have lived and worked for years in an English speaking country like the UK, US, Australia etc..

But you could have worked in an English speaking country still with very basic English, even none if you were lucky enough to have a job in a company of your countrymen. The reason CIC requires IELTS is that in the past, people sent them all kinds of glorious qualifications of why they should get full points for English and then showed up not speaking it.

 

[BobbyB]

Fair enough. Makes sense.