BC — Career Paths for Skilled Immigrants

About this award

Free re-credentialling support, language coaching, and work-experience placements if you are a skilled immigrant in BC trying to get back into your trained profession — partners deliver year-round.

Career Paths for Skilled Immigrants (CPSI) is a wraparound employment program — not a cash scholarship — that helps internationally trained skilled immigrants in BC get back into their trained profession. It is jointly funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Province of British Columbia, and delivered by a coalition of settlement agencies including ISSofBC, MOSAIC, Douglas College, Back in Motion, PICS, YWCA, Archway, KCRS, CVIMS, and ICA. The program exists because BC's labour market loses huge value when newly arrived doctors, engineers, accountants, and tradespeople end up in survival jobs — CPSI is the structured route back to professional work. What you receive is service-based: credential assessment, occupation-specific language training, funded skills upgrading or licensing courses, workshops, job-search support, and Canadian work experience through practicums or paid placements. The program runs in three streams. Stream 1 (high-demand priority occupations like tech, healthcare, engineering, and business) provides up to 24 months of support. Stream 2 (regulated professions requiring licensing) provides up to 22 months. Stream 3 (other unregulated BC occupations) provides up to 18 months. The support is bounded by stream length and is not renewable beyond the assigned window — once your placement and credentialling are complete, you exit the program. To qualify you must have become a permanent resident within the last decade (or be a refugee, protected person, or IRCC-approved permanent residency applicant), have at least one year of prior work experience, intermediate-to-advanced English, and be unemployed or underemployed. Apply by contacting the regional service partner closest to you on welcomebc.ca.

Can you get it?

• ✓ Permanent Resident or Protected Person or Refugee — citizenship requirement
• ✓ Certificate, Professional, College — study level
• ✓ Resident of BC — provincial eligibility
• ✓ Studying all — field of study

How to apply

1. 1

   Review eligibility and gather your documents~1 hour

   Read the official award page end-to-end. Confirm you meet every requirement before you start.

2. 2

   Submit before the posted deadline~1 hour

   Check the official source for the current deadline — save a copy and submit at least 24 hours early.

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