Microloans help skilled newcomers get back into the professions they are trained for

Canada is a very popular destination among South Asian immigrants, many of whom are skilled workers.

However, they frequently encounter challenges that impede them from finding employment commensurate with their skills, experience and education.

Sadly, a lot of them end up working on minimum wage jobs. This is precisely what happened to Trupti Bhavsar.

For ten years, she worked as a registered nurse in her native India. Looking for a better future for their family and the opportunity to advance in her profession, Bhavsar and her husband decided to move to Canada.

However, soon after arriving in Ontario, in 2012, she realized that she could not find a job in nursing without a license.

Even though she had extensive qualifications and years of experience in the nursing field, like many newcomers, Bhavsar found she needed to retrain before she could put her skills to use.

In Canada, nursing is a regulated profession. Therefore, internationally-educated nurses need to meet the required standards of practice and competency.

In Bhavsar’s case, her qualifications had to be recognized by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO). To ensure she could work in Canada, she applied to become a registered nurse (RN) and a registered practical nurse (RPN).

For the first eight months, Bhavsar was a stay-home mom, but since she needed to support her husband with household expenses, she got a factory job.

In India, her parents treated her like a princess, and now she was doing manual labour. That wasn’t the right type of work for her, and, after six months, she decided to look for a different position. “I left a very reputable job in India and came here to start a factory job. I felt like that wasn’t me,” she says.

Thanks to her nursing background, she was hired to look after seniors as a caregiver. She arranged her part-time hours according to her husband’s schedule, so both could take turns looking after their daughter.

It took Bhavsar an hour-and-a-half to get to work, but she knew she needed the job and the experience.

Once the College of Nurses of Ontario assessed her qualifications, she was informed that she did not meet one requirement: to demonstrate that she had been working as a nurse for the last three years. As a result, she needed to complete additional courses and practical hours.

Bhavsar could not afford to pay for the required courses. Her husband was working on a minimum-wage job, and her part-time caregiver hours did not leave much money left over.

While inquiring about student loans, she learned about Windmill Microlending. This registered Canadian charity supports skilled immigrants and refugees who need financial help to afford the costs of licensing or credentials anywhere in Canada.

The program offers loans to newcomers who may not have access to other credit because they have low income or no Canadian credit history.

She contacted Windmill and was approved for a loan to help cover the cost of a bridging program and textbooks.

She graduated in 2016 after completing 14 courses and 400 practical hours. Two weeks later, she received her RPN license, and, within a month, she was working as a registered practical nurse.

Today, Bhavsar works as a nurse at a Toronto-area hospital’s complex care unit.

She considers herself very lucky to have received the financial support she needed to earn her nursing credentials.

She often thinks about other internationally-educated nurses who have not been able to join the healthcare fight against COVID-19. She knows it must be very frustrating to see what is happening on the front lines and not be able to contribute.

“It’s very rewarding being able to work during the pandemic,” she says. “It’s a little bit scary, but it feels like we are fulfilling our meaning as a nurse. It also gives us satisfaction because we’re trying to help patients during this situation.”

From being a head nurse working in an operating room in India, to a factory worker and caregiver in Canada, Bhavsar faced many challenges before being able to practise as a nurse in Ontario. However, working as a nurse is the biggest reward she could have received for her effort.

“In the beginning, it was hard. We struggled to make ends meet, but once you achieve your goal, you feel great. Now I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Windmill helped with that a lot.”

To learn more about Windmill Microlending, visit windmillmicrolending.org.