The Saskatchewan Government has announced a new Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot Program under the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) to aid employers find employees for hard-to-fill positions in the province.
SINP’s new pilot program will enable employers to locate and recruit workers through overseas missions or international recruitment activities into select jobs that have had significant domestic recruitment challenges. The jobs eligible under the pilot program will allow for applications made to low and entry-level positions. On-the-job training may also be required by the employees to aid the company or business to fully operate and grow. Common sectors looking for hard-to-fill positions with the highest labour demands include health, manufacturing, agriculture, ag-tech, construction, hospitality and retail.
"The demand for labour in our province is strong, and it's only going to increase with the significant economic projects recently announced in Saskatchewan," Immigration and Career Training Minister Jeremy Harrison said. "This new Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot - developed in Saskatchewan for Saskatchewan - is progress on our autonomy discussions with the federal government and is going to help provide employers with greater access to international options to recruit workers. This is in addition to record investments into training and up-skilling our provincial workforce, as we enter a period of strong growth coming out of the global pandemic."
The Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot Program is scheduled to launch in December 2021. Immigrant nominees employed through this program would be supported by their employers and communities and contribute to the financial growth within each applied sector.
"This is very positive news for businesses in the hospitality industry in Saskatchewan," Hospitality Saskatchewan President and CEO Jim Bence said. "This pilot project is designed to attract talent and a great program for all sectors currently experiencing labour recruitment challenges in the province. While we always work hard to exhaust every opportunity to hire locally, we have to be creative to ensure we have the right labour supply to help our business and communities grow and thrive in Saskatchewan, something this very unique program will be especially helpful with post-COVID."
Employers who use the SINP pilot program must demonstrate they have made extensive efforts to hire domestically prior to utilizing the program for recruitment. They must demonstrate the need and benefit for their business and fulfill requirements related to providing settlement support for the workers.
To be eligible, applicants must:
Have a full-time, permanent offer of employment and SINP job approval letter for an eligible occupation from a registered Saskatchewan employer;
Meet a minimum Canadian Official Language proficiency level; and
Meet the minimum educational and work experience requirements, which include having at least one year of work experience in the same occupation as the job offer or six-month work experience in that job in Saskatchewan.
For more information on the initiative and eligibility criteria, contact the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training's Immigration Services at 1-833-613-0485 or immigration@gov.sk.ca.
