The Immigrant Employment Council of BC has announced 11 projects, including one proposed by the BC Trucking Association (BCTA), to be funded under the $1.4 million Employer Innovation Fund (EIF) to assist employers, industry and business associations in developing initiatives and resources to integrate skilled immigrants into BC workplaces.

BCTA has been awarded $196,000 to develop a professional driver vocational assessment tool aimed at immigrant applicants for driver positions and an employer licensing and training resource.

The tool will be designed to assess job-readiness in terms of technical skills as well as with respect to communications, customer relations and other important qualities. The tool will be tested on 25 immigrants who are pre-screened and actively seeking employment in the trucking industry.

The employer licensing and training resource will be a reference that outlines the licensing and testing requirements, training regime, and other factors that employers identify as important information in assessing the qualifications of applicants with non-Canadian licences and/or experience.

BCTA will develop both projects over the next year for completion by March 2014.