As an immigrant to North America, you will need to ensure that employers and organhations such as colleges and universities properly recognize your international credentials.These may be trade certificates, but also educational qualifications such as degrees or diplomas, that you have completed or partially-completed.

It is common for hiring personnel to have little or no training in evaluating an academic back ground earned outside of North America.But at the same time, employers see formal education as very important when hiring.Education is a hiring requirement for 60% of employment opportunities,but 40% of human resources staff say that if they do not know a lot about the value of documents attained elsewhere, they will not recognize them. 

Research has shown that sometimes immigrants start with a lower salary level than people who have completed their training in North America.You may want to apply for employment opportuni-ties with companies whose staff understands your situation or more importantly, who know where to send you to get your North American credentials.If you need to complete your training in North America, apprenticeships leading to skilled trades are in high demand.Apprenticeship training is a hands-on program where about 10% is in a classroom setting at community colleges, and 90% of the training is on-the-job.The training involves working for an employer and earning income during the training period.Sometimes there is a limit of 5 years for training.You may be able to use this train-ing toward college or university credits or education.There is a good potential for long-term job security after completion of apprenticeship training. 

If you earned your papers outside of North America, you will need to get them translated if you want to work or study.It is important for you that your education is assessed by an accredited assess-ment service when you are applying for jobs, and particularly if the job posting has an education requirement.As well, it is recommended that you include a copy of the report with your cover letter.It is suggested that you provide this information early and do not wait until the time you actually meet with the employer.Getting job interviews is more 50% of the whole process of securing em-ployment; and with an evaluation report, you want to make sure that employers are screening you “in” rather than “out”.