4 Mexicans tell you how they managed to study and work in Canada

By international employment agency

Pablo Briceño always had the idea of ​​going to Canada. When he obtained his electromechanical diploma from the University of Colima, he moved to Guanajuato to work in the automotive sector, with the firm idea of ​​saving money, applying for an educational program and processing the visa. student.

At the same time, he began to study English, knowing that it would open doors more easily for him. However, his plans did not go as planned. The 12,000 pesos he earned per month was not enough to pay for his studies, support himself and save. He was also not accepted into any of the programs he applied to and, moreover, he did not feel he was making progress in learning the language.

“The educational agencies bombard you with very nice, and sometimes even false information. One of the obstacles is that you have to have 12,000 Canadian dollars in a bank account (around 191,400 pesos). If you are a person who lives day to day, it is difficult to raise that money, ”he explains.

The 26-year-old has therefore chosen to take another path. He started sending his CV to various job boards, but only to vacancies in Canada. To leave, he lost the fear of working anything.

In less than two months, he was contacted by Next, an international employment agency, to offer him a job as a pipe washer, promising to send him to Ontario in 90 days. In the process, he spent 30,000 pesos, and on November 1, 2019, his dream of setting foot on Canadian soil came true.

Their working hours are Monday to Friday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., with 30-minute breaks. He earns 17 Canadian dollars per hour (about 271 Mexican pesos), that is, he earns 2,169 pesos per day and about 10,846 pesos per week.

He took English lessons on Saturdays with a private tutor and currently rents an apartment for CAN $ 600 per month (about 9,570 pesos), and spends a maximum of $ 100 per week (1,595 pesos) in the warden. to eat. He does not regret having taken the path he did, today his goal is to learn French and, now, to study a postgraduate degree.

Patricia Malagón also trusted an international employment agency. She is a computer systems engineer at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) and, as a woman, has seen that the sector experiences gender disparities in Mexico. However, she does not consider that it went badly, since she worked at the consulting firm Cognizant as a developer of a project for Grupo Bimbo, and earned an average of 50,000 pesos per month.

The first time he wanted to work in Canada was when, at the Alliance française de Mexico, he heard the testimony of Sara Tapia, director of mobility at the Agence de développement économique international du Québec. .

The Mexican said her success and professional development has been in Quebec, a province that is home to about 7,000 IT companies, more than 100 of which are multinationals, and which annually hire more than 125,000 people.

One of them is the technological Levio Conseils, which at the time was recruiting. Motivated by her compatriot, Malagón approached the agency to apply, and in the last filter, company executives told her they would give her the job of developer analyst if she increased her level of French.

On the recommendation of the company, he traveled to Quebec in December 2019 to study the language at the Edu-Inter school, and he did so with a saving of 80,000 pesos which allowed him to process his visa. student and live there temporarily. “In three months, I learned what I couldn’t in three years in Mexico,” he says.

Her studies ended on Friday March 12, 2020, and on Monday March 15, she was going to start the process for her work and employment visa, but COVID-19 arrived and she had to return, unemployed. Patricia got her license until January of this year and started working in March. For the young woman, it was worth the wait and even the uncertainty, because Canada is a dream that has allowed her to double her salary and offer her family a better quality of life.

Her husband automatically received a work permit and began the process of “francization”, that is to say, take French courses and receive financial assistance from the Canadian government, while her son is entering the fourth year of elementary school. in an English-speaking school, where she studies English. and French at the same time.

“In Mexico, I had entry times, but not exit times. Here they scold me if I work too much. They prioritize family and personal life. Sports are well regarded, most of them engage in recreational activities like reading, and supermarkets close at 5 in the afternoon because they know people have a life after work, ”says -he.