Canada is now allowing foreign nationals who have skills and experience as aircraft assemblers to apply for permanent residence in Canada under the Express Entry system’s Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program.

The change to the FSW which made that possible came on Nov. 16 last year, when Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) added 16 new jobs to its list of eligible occupations under that worker immigration program.

That increased the number of eligible occupations under the FSW on the same day the National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2021 came into effect at the IRCC to 359.

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The 16 new occupations are all deemed to be jobs for which the worker must get a college diploma, an apprenticeship training of less than two years, or more than six months of on-the-job training.

The full list of newly-added jobs on the list of eligible occupations under the FSW includes:

• NOC 13102 Payroll administrators
• NOC 33100 Dental assistants and dental laboratory assistants
• NOC 33102 Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates
• NOC 33103 Pharmacy technical assistants and pharmacy assistants
• NOC 43100 Elementary and secondary school teacher assistants
• NOC 43200 Sheriffs and bailiffs
• NOC 43201 Correctional service officers
• NOC 43202 By-law enforcement and other regulatory officers
• NOC 63211 Estheticians, electrologists and related occupations
• NOC 73200 Residential and commercial installers and servicers
• NOC 73202 Pest controllers and fumigators
• NOC 73209 Other repairers and servicers
• NOC 73300 Transport truck drivers
• NOC 73301 Bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators
• NOC 73400 Heavy equipment operators
• NOC 93200 Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors

Aircraft assemblers – as those who build airplanes and helicopters categorized under the National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2021 system are called,  are in hot demand across Canada as aircraft manufacturers and the companies that supply them struggle to find workers.

“It’s crickets out there for experienced workers,” Cascade Aerospace operations supervisor Scott Cadwell reportedly told the Reuters news agency. 

Travel restrictions imposed by governments grounded airplanes during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a couple of lean years – and a loss of jobs for many workers in the industry. 

Aerospace Sector Roaring Back To Life In Canada And Looking For Workers

But now the aerospace sector is roaring back to life – and doing so faster than the experts predicted. Naveo Consultancy forecast last year that $84 billion would be spent on the maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft.

And that means lots of jobs in the aerospace sector and opportunities for economic immigration to Canada for skilled foreign nationals.

The Canadian federal government’s job-hunting website ranks the job prospects for aircraft assemblers in British Columbia as very good and in Alberta, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec as good over the next three years.

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Since there are relatively few companies that build aircraft, the number of job listings for aircraft assembly positions are few in number but those that are hiring are often seeking to hire many workers at the same time. 

GE Aviation in Bromont, Quebec is one such company on a hiring spree, looking to hire 100 people by the end of June this year. Bombardier is also looking to hire aircraft assemblers as are Stelia Aéronautique Canada and Mecachrome Canada.

Economic immigration through Express Entry, though, offers both a way for foreign nationals to get their permanent residence here and for aerospace employers to recruit qualified foreign nationals to fill aircraft assembler positions in Canada.

Federal Skilled Worker Program Allows Foreign Nationals With In Demand Skills To Immigrate To Canada

Foreign nationals hoping to apply for permanent residence through the FSW must have one year of paid work experience within the last decade in jobs categorized as TEER 0, 1, 2, or 3 of the NOC 2021 system.

Applicants under this program must also take a language test to prove that they possess sufficient language skills to successfully establish themselves in Canada. Language tests evaluate an applicant’s abilities with regard to the following:

• listening
• speaking
• reading
• writing

In order to be eligible for the FSW, an applicant needs to obtain at least the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 7 in all categories and show that he or she has enough money to support him or herself and any relatives upon arrival in Canada.