Canada Highly Demanded Occupations: Top 8 Technology Jobs
In recent years, immigrants have emerged as a major driving force of the Canadian economy. The vast majority of foreign-born citizens and permanent residents (PR) in Canada have entered the country through economic immigration programs – wherein overseas workers are invited to occupy job vacancies that cannot be filled by the domestic population. Specific work profiles that are facing labour shortages are featured on the Canada Occupation in Demand List.
Canada’s technology sector is growing at a rapid pace, but is lacking in manpower, and needs the skills of foreign workers to sustain itself. This has also prompted some provinces to launch dedicated Canada PR Visa pathways under their Provincial Nominee Programs – specifically to address workforce requirements in the local tech sector.
For instance; the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program recently introduced ‘Tech Draws’, which invite candidates under the Human Capital Priorities Stream – who have the skills and experience required to pursue tech jobs in the province – to apply for nomination. The BC PNP already runs a ‘Tech Pilot’ dedicated towards recruiting and retaining international talent in the British Columbia’s burgeoning tech sector. In 2019, this Pilot was extended to June 2020.
Human resource consulting firm Randstad Canada has recently predicted the technology occupations that will be most highly in-demand in 2020. Some of the best-paying jobs across Canada are concentrated in the tech industry. The average annual salary for tech workers in 2020 is roughly $81,750. While low-earners in this field make around $55,000, the highest-earners could take home as much as $140,000 every year.
In order to pursue certain immigration pathways, tech workers must fulfil the Canada PR requirements related to availability of a job offer, language skills, academic qualifications, work experience, etc. However, the most crucial eligibility criteria is that the applicant must be qualified to practice a ‘targeted’ or in-demand occupation in Canada. In some cases, the candidate is required to possess a valid offer of employment from a Canadian tech employer. To identify and access overseas employment opportunities, job seekers can register with an online job portal or international recruitment agency.
The below-mentioned jobs are expected to be highly in-demand in Canada’s technology sector in 2020. Candidates who have relevant experience in these occupations can consider immigration to Canada as a promising prospect:
Programmers and Developers with knowledge of programming languages (Java, .NET, Python, etc.), as well as front and back-end skills.
IT Project Managers, especially those certified by Project Management Professionals, Project Management Institute, or Agile.
Quality Assurance Analysts who can ensure that a particular software is bug-free and user-friendly.
Data Analysts with the skills to analyse and interpret vast amounts of data.
IT Business Analysts who can optimize and shape business systems/software for efficient functioning, and specialize in software and tech analysis.
Senior Software Engineers with high level coding skills and considerable work experience.
Network Administrators who can supervise IT setup and networks, as well as manage network equipment and servers.
Technical Support Specialists with skills to assist customers and businesses in solving software, hardware and technical issues.
In Canada, tech talent is most urgently required in major metropolitan cities like Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. Thus, eligible tech workers whose jobs feature on the Canada Occupation in Demand List are likely to gain the coveted opportunity of living and working in some of Canada’s most well-developed, diverse, and vibrant economic centres.
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