Employers and Prospective Employers
Canada is about to experience a shortage of workers across all industries as Baby Boomers – the largest Canadian generation ever – retire in number.
As a result, employers and professions across Canada may face significant workforce challenges over the coming decades. Chartered Accountancy is no exception.
Consider: Today, the average retirement age has dropped to between 60 and 61 years and is continuing to decline. Between 1987 and 1990, 29% of people retired before the age of 60. Between1997 and 2000, that rate had grown to 43%, reflecting the increasing importance of retirement in Canadians’ lives.
The impact of these retirements will be staggering. By 2015, Canadian workers aged 55 to 64 will make up 48% of the labour force. And they’ll be retiring en masse.
Compounding this, the pool of employees immediately following the Baby Boomers is much smaller. And those younger workersnow are entering the workforce later, reflecting a trend among young people to remain in school much longer.
This makes the aging – and shrinking – of Canada’s domestic workforce a strategic issue for every organization in Canada.
And it makes clear that going forward, the labour market for highly-skilled professional talent increasingly will have to come from internationally trained professionals.
In fact, Statistics Canada data indicates that starting in 2011, immigration will account for 100 per cent of Canada’s net labour force growth and all net population growth over the next quarter century.
The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants is focused on helping Canadian organizations to counter the anticipated shortage of Canadian-born Chartered Accountants by making surethat internationally trained accounting professionals are fairly assessed and that the pathways to becoming a CA in Canada are clear.
You may already have internationally trained accounting professionals on staff who could, with your encouragement and as part of their career development, work toward getting their CA designation. See the CA Training Office website at: http://www.catrainingoffice.ca for details on how your organization can become a training office for those seeking to gain their Canadian CA designation.
Additionally, you may be interested in hiring an internationally trained accounting professional who has become a CA in Canada.
The steps vary depending on the accounting body they became a member of through completion of its qualification process and on their existing education and experience.
But no matter which path they must follow, he or she will be a fully qualified Canadian CA upon its successful completion.
The benefits to employers: the talent they need to grow and succeed and fully qualified CAs who bring skill, professionalism, and unique cross-cultural benefits to their organizations.
Foreign Credential Recognition Program.
Earning my Canadian CA gave me a globally recognized designation that bridges the gap between theory and practice, enhancing the value I can provide Read more
- Abbas Barodawalla, CA, BC Housing, Home country: India
With my Canadian CA, I can be whatever I want to be in the future. Read more
- Jannet C. Taruc, CA, Grant Thornton, BC, Home country: Philippines
Becoming a Canadian CA has allowed me to bridge from my previous working experience given me ways to leverage my background, and opened the doors to an exciting career progression in Canada. Read more
- Joe Lai, CA, Senior Manager, Assurance Services, Ernst & Young LLP, Calgary, AB, Home country: Singapore
The strong reputation of the CA designation, both in Canada and internationally, meant a lot of doors were open to me Read more
- Daniel Labarca, D+H Group LLP, Home country: Venezuela
Government, academic and other resources
For more resources for immigrants, click here
