Immigrants competing for jobs in Canada with a higher education but lower soft skills than the Canadian-born competition will end up at the back of line, said Lionel Laroche, an expert on cultural diversity in the Canadian workplace during the ISSofBC sponsored BC Immigrant Professionals Conference.
During his keynote speech to approximately 300 participants, he urged job seekers to try to understand how the Canadian working environment operates before jumping into more technical training to land a job.
“Soft skills matter a lot more in Canada. Most people think about increasing their technical skills but working on their soft skills is essential,” he said.
Soft skills refer to a cluster of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make someone a good employee and compatible to work with.
Staff from ISSofBC’s Skills Connect and Mentoring Connections also presented at the event providing expert advice to participants as well sharing information on the benefits of their ISSofBC programs.
In addition, ISSofBC career services set up an attractive information booth on the exhibit floor to promote ISSofBC’s services to potential clients and interested conference participants.
During the day’s workshops and seminars, participants also had a chance to network, ask questions to a panel of experts and review tips on how to maximize their job search.
ISSofBC would like to aknowledge Freda Fernandes, Carol Cordeiro, Brenda Alindogan, Mary Tecson, Vanessa Lee, Irene Lin, Silvia Arreguin, Tanja Ivkovic, Maggie Chen, Esther Jung, Laurie Sing and Alla Sotnikova for all their hard work creating a successful event for the over 300 participants that attended.
MOSAIC and DIVERSEcity were also point sponsors for the event.
