Amir Farooq is an expert with experience in the on-farm production of crops like wheat and canola.
After receiving his masters degree in agriculture and agronomy, he spent six years working for major multinationals, advising farmers how to best use their products to grow a good crop.
But he doesn’t find much use for that experience in his present job as a rent-a-cop for a Shopper’s Drug Mart. His education and experience were earned in Pakistan and can’t be easily applied here.
He’s one of the thousands of immigrants who come to Canada with qualifications they find they can’t apply.
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“We were very disappointed,” said Farooq, who lives in Winnipeg.
“We had heard that Canada is the land of opportunity.”
A new program operating at the University of Manitoba and endorsed by the Manitoba Institute of Agrol-ogists aims to help immigrants with agricultural credentials get out of low-end work and move into the agricultural industry. Agricultural companies have been hard pressed to find young people interested in the field.
The Internationally Educated Agrologist pilot program gives people with foreign agricultural experience eight months of specific training in Canadian conditions and regulations. They also get a four month work term in the prairie agriculture industry to acquire experience.
Farooq is thrilled to be enrolled in the program, which has 13 students. Coming to Canada as a professional but ending up as a security guard has been a challenge to Farooq, who has to support his wife and three children in his Winnipeg apartment.
But he feels fortunate compared to other students in his program, who are similarly educated but who have often spent four or five years working at convenience stores or driving taxis.
“I am lucky that I am going the right way in such a short time,” said Farooq.
Earl Geddes, president of the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists, said having so many trained agricultural experts working in low-skilled jobs is ridiculous, because the agriculture industry needs them now.
“They’re as educated as any of the agrologists who work here at the Canadian Wheat Board,” said Geddes, who is the board’s vice-president of product development and marketing support.
“It’s a total waste of their knowledge and their capability in an industry that simply doesn’t graduate enough agrologists to meet the demand.”
Geddes said the shortage of agrologists has led to unqualified people offering their services to farmers, which is dangerous and a banned practice. The foreign agrologists can help fill the void into which unlicensed opportunists have moved.
“We’re very excited by the fact that these international agrologists coming into this province understand very clearly the value of a professional designation as they go out to seek employment,” said Geddes.
“We have people in the province that aren’t nearly as understanding of the value or the merit or the requirement to have a professional status to practise agrology, so we see these people as not only valuable to our industry, but as leaders in the understanding that professionalism is key.”
Farooq may be disappointed that he has to wait for two years and undergo extra training to return to his profession, but he is happy he chose to move to the Prairies, rather than Ontario, where most south Asian immigrants go.
Before he left Pakistan, a friend who had moved to Manitoba advised him to avoid populous but unpromising Ontario and try the Prairies, where there is a bigger commitment to take advantage of immigrants’ qualifications.
“He told me, ‘if you want to do a job in your profession, come to Manitoba or Saskatchewan. If you want to do an odd job, to drive a taxi or work at
7-Eleven, then go to Ontario,’ ” said Farooq with a smile.
“I took the risk and came here.”
