June 14, 2006
UCFV India degree tackles labour crisis, immigrant employability
Applicant deadline June 23 for first batch in Chandigarh, India
Results of the latest Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, released on June 9, have fuelled the desire for Indian citizens to join Canada’s University College of the Fraser Valley (UCFV) Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program, which will be delivered entirely in Chandigarh, India, starting July 17 at SD College. The survey indicates that Canada’s employment rate has hit an all-time high of 63.2 per cent; a low birth rate and aging population mean employers will increasingly rely on the contribution of immigrants to keep the country competitive.
Students in the Canadian degree program will receive highly specialized management training and apply it through practical work experience with employers. Upon graduation, they will be prepared to meet growing labour market demands across Canada.
“The Canadian birth rate remains anaemic,” says Richard Barnabe, Deputy Chief Statistician for Statistics Canada. “According to our predictions, growth will depend solely on the contribution of immigration by about 2015-2017.”
More than 30 per cent of Canada’s skilled managers and executives are set to retire in the next five years. With shortages already arising and the economy positioned for significant growth, the gap left by these retiring ‘baby boomers’ (people born shortly after the end of World War II) will leave a massive void — one UCFV knows Indian graduates of its BBA program will be well positioned to fill.
“The labour crunch we are starting to see now will peak around 2010, exactly when this first batch will be graduating,” explains Professor DJ Sandhu, UCFV President’s Advisor on Strategic Initiatives. “This BBA offers an ideal opportunity for Indian students to be educated to a Canadian standard, to obtain practical project work experience with Canadian corporations and multinationals, and to get an internationally recognized Canadian degree, all before they make a career move to Canada, if they so desire. It allows them to avoid the foreign credential evaluation process completely and make a smooth transition into the Canadian skilled labour force upon arrival.”
The program, delivered successfully for 10 years in Canada, is guided by leading employers who advise faculty on continuous upgrades to reflect a changing business environment. “We have more than 650 partnering employers who not only tell us what we should teach, they also provide real-life practical projects for our students, donate cash and technology to the university, and best of all, they hire our grads,” says Sandhu.
The professor emphasizes that Indian employers and business faculty share the opinion that BBA graduates of a traditional teaching method have no practical experience and have not developed the qualities employers are looking for. “We know there is a labour surplus in India, but still we see reports that, even here, there is a shortage of qualified workers. That means the education system requires a different approach to reflect the needs of business and industry. UCFV developed this applied and practical model in Canada, but we understand it is, in many ways, even more necessary here in India.”
He also explains that this BBA tackles two hurdles new immigrants to Canada often face when trying to enter the job market: foreign credential evaluation and lack of Canadian work experience. The Conference Board of Canada estimates 540,000 Canadians, most of them immigrants, are underemployed (working in jobs that do not match their level of qualification), specifically due to these two prevailing issues. Despite a federal commitment to remove obstacles, many new Canadians still feel government action should be faster and more effective.
“Graduates can complete the program either here in India or in Canada; either way, they will possess a fully accredited degree from a highly respected Canadian university — completely eliminating any need for their credentials to be assessed in what is often a lengthy and debilitating process,” he says. “Plus, our partnering Canadian business owners will provide students here with many opportunities to accumulate tangible work-related experience, often via online communication, long before they graduate.”
To learn more about this program, students and parents are invited to attend regular information and application seminars at the SD College premises in Chandigarh’s Sector 32-C. Admissions close on June 23. Digital brochures and application forms can be downloaded at www.ucfv.ca/chandigarh, or drop in to the UCFV-SDCC Centre in the Administrative Block at GGDSD College in Sector 32 for more information.
The University College of the Fraser Valley (UCFV) in Canada serves 10,000 students and its Abbotsford campus, a 45-minute drive from the heart of Vancouver, enjoys wide support from the largest Indo-Canadian community in Western Canada. This initiative is yet another example of how the Canadian university is nurturing its ties to India. To underline its commitment to link education with industry in the two countries, UCFV houses the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies and Research (CICSR) and last year donated 10 lakh Rs. to Panjab University in support of its Canadian Studies Centre.
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