New Brunswick (NB), which has one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada, is extending one of its provincially regulated immigration pilots —to fill certain jobs with international students.The Private Career College Graduate Pilot (PCCGP) targets international students from select colleges in NB who are enrolled in programs in "education and social development, health, IT and cybersecurity, business administration, and in supply chain and logistics."They claim these new graduates must not be eligible for the feds' Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program to qualify for the pilot.This comes as Statistics Canada recently released the country's unemployment rates for June, with NB recording a 7.3% unemployment rate, a 0.1% increase from a month earlier..NB's unemployment rate is even higher than Canada's overall rate, which was 6.5%.The two eligible colleges for the program are Eastern College (EC) and Oulton College (OC).EC programs eligible for the permit include, child and youth care and addictions support worker, early childhood education worker, personal support worker and medical administrative specialist.OC programs include nursing, paramedic, medical laboratory assistant, educational assistant, and child and youth counselling. .NB mentions employers must meet eligibility criteria, with employers having to ensure the international student does "not take away job opportunities for Canadian citizens and permanent residents living in New Brunswick ('local residents').""Your employer must demonstrate a genuine need to hire a foreign national for the position offered to you," they state in the program guide.The claim the job advertisement must be displayed publicly for at least four weeks within the last six months before the full-time job is offered to the foreign candidate. The PGWP was first launched in 2022 and was meant to last three years, but was extended to "offer a potential pathway to international students already registered in specific programs of study who would not have graduated prior to the pilot’s original end date."
