Working as a childhood educator in Canada

Candidates often need to find a job for immigrating to Canada to support themselves and their family's needs. However, some professions require a special license and that makes it difficult.

Our interviewee found a Canadian employer who provided her with a Labour Market Impact Assessment or LMIA. A Canadian employer needs to obtain this document to hire a foreign worker, and it costs $1,000 CAD. After the job offer, Vika obtained a work visa, she is now living in Canada and will get her permanent residency soon. Vika works as a childhood educator and her family consists of four people: Vika, her husband, and two children.

How to become a childhood educator in Canada?

Vika: "In Canada, you can't work as an educator without a license, so I had to get one beforehand for employers to hire me."

Vika received her first license from the province of Saskatchewan. She chose this province because of the low requirements in its provincial program. At that time Vika’s English proficiency was CLB 5 (IELTS 5.0 or B1), which is not very high by the standards of immigration programs.

To begin with, Vika had to have her credentials evaluated by the World Educational Services or WES (an organization that evaluates credentials in Canada), and she had to fill out various additional documents which were no problem for her.

Childhood educators were in demand, but there were few job openings. The job search was the next step after obtaining a Canadian license.

Was it difficult to get a job offer?

"Yes. Every day I was looking for a lot of postings on job search portals. Applied many times. I sent hundreds of resumes. I just opened websites and sent the maximum before my work in Ukraine. Of course, there were more openings in other provinces, but I needed a different license there," says Vika.

After a while, two employers in British Columbia were willing to hire her with LMIA support.

"I found out that there is a special agreement between the provinces. If you have a license in one province you can apply to another province for the same license. I had to send in my Saskatchewan license and some completed application forms, and after a while, they sent me my second license. I had to start working right away, as the license was only valid for a year."

Vika's husband received an open work permit, Vika got a closed work visa with the possibility to work for one employer only, and the children received a study visa for free education in public schools.

Were interviews difficult?

Vika: "I was given a big questionnaire with quite serious questions. There were certain situations and I had to answer what I would do. There were no video interviews. And I had never seen my employer before I came to Canada."

How much can educators earn in Canada?

"Everything depends on the license (they come in different levels). However, it is important to understand that as a foreigner you can’t be offered the lowest hourly rate. My starting hourly rate was 18.50 CAD. That is, for 2 days of work I could already earn a monthly Ukrainian salary."

What about relationships at work?

"In my current job in Canada, I have a good relationship with both my colleagues and my employer. There is a difference between my relationship with my employer in Ukraine or in Canada, as I do not have a close relationship with the latter, but my boss speaks well of me and supports me."

How is the parenting process different in Canada?

"The process of raising children in Canada has some peculiarities, many things seemed unusual the first week. For example, children go to bed with their shoes on. But this is more of a safety measure due to frequent fires in our region. Probably this is not the case in other places. Also, children don't have beds, they are replaced by special mattresses."

How was the adaptation in Canada?

"Everyone's first year is the hardest. We were trying to settle in. My husband was out of work for more than a month because we arrived in the middle of the pandemic. Finally, my husband went to work at a construction site. We decided that we needed to live by the current rules and never converted Canadian prices to our currency."

How are things now?

"We applied for permanent residency through a provincial program for in-demand professions. We received a provincial nomination (a document from the province that entitles you to apply for permanent residency in Canada.) We travel a lot. Everything was new to me as I have never lived anywhere else. Our kids told me right away that they are in the right place. We have already traveled all over British Columbia. Every weekend we try to go somewhere, like the nearby lakes. We've also already traveled all over the neighboring province of Alberta."

I hope that Vika's story will set an example of perseverance and hard work and inspire you to take the time-consuming but rewarding path of immigrating to Canada.

Dreaming of Canada too? Our team has a licensed immigration consultant who will find a suitable immigration program for you and help you with the paperwork. 

Alex Pavlenko, founder of Immigrant.Today