Canada prioritizes new occupations for permanent residence

Of note:

Ottawa has added teachers’ assistants, early childhood educators, and cooks, among others, to a list of occupations prioritized in the selection of skilled immigrants for permanent residence in 2025.

The Immigration Department introduced the “category-based selection” — better known as the “targeted draw” of skilled immigrants — in June 2023 to better align newcomers with Canada’s labour market needs by prioritizing candidates in specific occupational sectors.

In additional to focusing on candidates with strong French language proficiency, the system targets those in the talent pool with a background in five occupational sectors: health care; science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions; trades such as carpenters, plumbers and contractors; transport; and agriculture and agri-food.

On Thursday, officials removed the entire transport category and added the education sector, which includes roles such as kindergarten, elementary and secondary teachers’ assistants to teachers, early childhood educators and instructors for persons with disabilities, among others.

The list of eligible occupations has been updated, with new roles added and some removed from each category.

For instance, the health care category has been expanded to cover new health care and social services occupations, as well as various technologist and technician jobs…

Source: Canada prioritizes new occupations for permanent residence