Oumou Ndiaye only asks to be able to continue her pastry courses, already started since January at the École hôtelière de la Capitale, but the Quebec Ministry of Immigration (MIFI) refuses to allow her to move from CEGEP to a professional school. These refusals are becoming more and more frequent, even though vocational studies are one of the government’s educational priorities and labor needs remain in several sectors.
Several professional training centers in Quebec have in fact been making this observation for several months. However, they are counting on the contribution of foreign students to fill the ranks of the cohorts, “especially in the regions”, points out in particular Nabila Bedjbedj, of Destination formation Québec, which brings together four of these centers in Lac-Saint-Jean.
The MIFI for its part denies any change in policy.
As for Mme Ndiaye, she arrived from Senegal last fall and started a session at La Pocatière CEGEP. She quickly faced difficulties: “I went to my classes every day, I did my exams, my exercises, but I could not at all keep up with the high level of studies,” she later wrote to the MIFI to justify your change request.
In an interview, she also said that she never felt like she belonged: “It was the first time that I found myself in a class as the only person of color. »
Having already worked in food processing in her home country, she is looking for a solution. The pastry course at the École hôtelière de la Capitale seemed like a good option to him.
She therefore begins the session on January 18 and submits the papers to change her level of study five days later. This type of deadline was accepted before and the change, “a simple formality”, points out Micaël Papillon, the guidance counselor who accompanies him in these procedures.
More than 11 weeks of classes later, in April, the MIFI gave him a definitive refusal, after having already indicated its intentions in March. A second set of supporting documents had been provided in the meantime, but the refusal letter states that they were not. However, they do indeed appear in the file consulted by The duty. “They have all the documents, the immigration agent read them to me over the phone,” underlines Mr. Papillon, of the École hôtelière de la Capitale.
The letter from the immigration officer further cites an incorrect date.
Continue to flow
The ministry also criticizes the young woman for not having studied more than one session with her first Quebec acceptance certificate (CAQ), the one granted for college studies. Finally, the five days that elapsed before submitting her application for professional training are held against her.
It’s not like she didn’t go to her classes at CEGEP. She did everything she had to do. She succeeds, she speaks French, she paid for her session. And there, she is afraid of being expelled from the country.
“What should she have done? Continue at great expense in a program where it was sinking? » asks Mr. Papillon, who describes this refusal as “aberrant”.
“I feel very unstable, I’m very stressed and I don’t know where to turn. […] I just want to study,” says Mme Ndiaye.
“It’s not like she didn’t go to her CEGEP classes. She did everything she had to do. She succeeds, she speaks French, she paid for her session. And there, she is afraid of being expelled from the country,” says her advisor.
“I’m going to have to kick her out. » A sudden grain in his voice, he does not hide his fed up. His incomprehension has grown over the refusals of recent months: “Where is the disadvantage for Quebec in having cooks, butchers, pastry chefs, beneficiary attendants? Where there are major labor shortages? I don’t understand. » The MIFI presumes “malicious intentions”, while “young people simply got the wrong program”, he observes.
Hunting for “stratagems”?
Since last fall, other establishments have seen this type of refusal increase.
“Yes, we see the same thing,” confirms Nabila Bedjbedj, international mobility development agent at the Lac-Saint-Jean School Service Center, which takes care of four professional training centers.
International Education, which represents more than 90 professional training centers, also noted that “this is not anecdotal”, confirms the general director, Lysiane van der Knaap. Without commenting on whether this is justified or not, the organization explains that several reasons can explain these refusals.
In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, around ten students were refused transfer to vocational training because they had not gone to CEGEP as initially planned, the Or-et School Service Center told us. -Woodland. Five more were accepted.
The MIFI indicates by email that it is impossible to provide specific statistics on this phenomenon and that no policy change has taken place.
Behind the scenes, however, officials from this ministry indicated to these officials that the desire was to “eliminate the stratagems” of students who would “use” CEGEPs and universities to enter Quebec.
Researcher Islem Bendjaballah refuses to describe these paths as “stratagems”: they are rather “opportunities”. “The immigration systems in Quebec and Canada allow this. Some take advantage of this opportunity and, ultimately, find work more easily than academics,” notes this researcher who wrote his doctoral thesis on the journey of international students and who continues to work alongside dozens of them.
On the one hand, students can be excluded from their programs if they have a few failures. And on the other, they can no longer change their program: “That creates really difficult situations,” concludes the researcher.
Good prospects
However, employment opportunities in the field of catering or tourism continue to be quite good, despite a slowdown in recent months.
Cooking and baking are even more in demand than pastry, but the needs are “generalized,” explains Martin Vézina, vice-president of public affairs at the Association Restauration Québec. The professional path “is not a sidetrack” and he hopes that it will be valued, he says.
More broadly, the food processing industry would need 142,000 new people by 2030, according to recent calculations by Food Processing Skills Canada.
“Our students all find work when they leave,” confirms Micaël Papillon, from the École hôtelière de la Capitale.
For every professional graduate, “there are two jobs,” says Lysiane van der Knapp, of Education Internationale.
“The survival of certain professional programs” is also at stake, adds M.me Bedjbedj.