Are you interested in Architect jobs in Canada? then this guide is for you.
Did you know that being an architect is one of the most in-demand jobs in Canada? All 11 provinces and territories in Canada need architects, and the best ones earn between $59,000 and $92,400 per year.
If you are considering making Canada your new home, you will find many ways to move there and many job opportunities. Over the country, architects are in high demand, and you can get a Canadian Permanent Residency Visa with or without a job offer.
Architects like you are moving to Canada by the tens of thousands. Find out how to connect them. In Canada, we need more architects. If you are an architect and want to move to Canada, you can find all the information you need here.
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Is There a Need for Architects in Canada?
Yes, there is! As was already said, if you are an experienced architect, you can move to Canada and have a good chance of getting a job in 11 provinces. These jobs are open in the following places:
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
Over the next few years, 26000 new jobs will be expected to be created because of growth and the need to replace workers. In addition, 33000 new jobs will be created for recent graduates and people who want to come to Canada to live and work.
How much do architects in Canada get paid?
In Canada, salaries are competitive, and an architect can make anywhere from $59,000 to $92,400 per year.
How do I look for jobs in Canada as an architect?
In Canada, most jobs for architects are posted on job boards. A code is often used to track down an architect’s job. In Canada, these labels are used to identify different jobs.
These numbers are called NOC codes. The NOC code for a builder is 2151. Architects are in charge of many different tasks.
These are jobs that a lot of architects do. If you work or are employed in any of the following positions, you are covered by the overall noc code of 2151 for architects.
Architects plan and design the building and remodeling of homes, businesses, and public buildings. They may work for architecture firms, private companies, governments, or for themselves.
In addition to these roles, an architect may also:
- Architect
- Architectural standards specialist
- Chief Architect
- Consulting architect
- The industrial and commercial building architect
- Residential Architect
- Residential building architect
How do I move to Canada so I can get a job as an architect there?
Step 1: Find out if you can get into the country.
Step 2: Get Canada’s approval for your qualifications
For you to be able to live and work as an architect in Canada, you must have the qualifications you got outside of Canada approved and recognized there.
An Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) verifies that your degree, diploma, or certificate is valid and meets Canadian standards. This is important because it lets you get Permanent Residency points for your education and training, which may also be needed for work, professional registration in Canada, and Canadian immigration services.
The following groups are allowed to give you an evaluation:
- Comparative Education Service – University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies;
- International Credential Assessment Service of Canada;
- World Education Services;
- International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS); and
- International Credential Evaluation Service.
Educational and experience requirements for Architects include:
- A bachelor’s degree from a recognized architecture school or completion of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s (RAIC) course of studies is required.
- You might need a master’s degree in architecture.
- In Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, you have to register with a governing body.
- Nova Scotia has rules about how cities and land are used. Brunswick, New Brunswick In Quebec, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, you need to be a member of a provincial planning institution. This may also be true for other provinces.
- The Canada Green Building Council offers leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Some companies may need this certification.
- During the process of figuring out if you can move to Canada, you may be asked to show a number of papers and references that show your skills and knowledge.
Step 3: Start the process of moving to Canada by getting a visa.
As an architect, you can move to Canada in many ways, but here are the top four that will give you the best chance of being accepted:
- Express Entry system
- Provincial Nominee Program
- The Rural and Northern Immigration Program
- The Atlantic Immigration Pilot
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1. Express Entry
The best way for an architect to move to Canada is through the Express Entry (EE) system. It is not only the fastest way to move to Canada, but also one of the easiest ways to do so. If you meet the right age, qualifications, and other requirements, you could reach Canada in six months.
The first step in the Canadian Express Entry immigration process is to use the Canadian Comprehensive Ranking System to figure out how many points you have for Express Entry Canada (CRS).
CRS Points are awarded for a variety of factors, including:
- Age
- Qualifications
- English ability
- French ability
- Your partner’s skills
- Work experience
2. Provincial Nominee Program
The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) makes it possible for skilled or semi-skilled immigrants to come to Canada and live and work there. Most ways to move to Canada require a good job offer for at least one year. Each of Canada’s 11 provinces and territories has its own Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). Each PNP has its own set of labor requirements.
Suppose your skills match what your chosen province or territory wants. In that case, you may be eligible for a provincial nomination, which is worth 600 extra Permanent Residency points and guarantees you an offer of permanent residency in Canada.
3. Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program
You may be able to move to Canada through the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program if you are an architect. This is because architects are in high demand (RNIP). Eleven cities have now signed up to take part in the pilot project. If you want to apply for permanent residency in Canada through the RNIP, you must have a real job offer in one of the towns that are taking part.
4. The Atlantic Immigration Pilot Programme
Because architects are in high demand in the four Atlantic provinces, you may be able to apply if you have a job offer for at least one year under the Atlantic Immigration Pilot.
Step 4: Apply for a Job as an Architect in Canada.
You can move to Canada even if you don’t have a job as a highly qualified worker, but having one will speed up the process. It will help with the immigration process because a real job offer could get you anywhere from 50 to 200 PR points. This puts you ahead of the other applicants because the more points you have, the more likely you are to get an invitation to one of the Canada Visa System’s many offer rounds.
In Canada, architects are said to do the following:
- Consult with the client to find out what kind of renovations or new building construction they want and why.
- Plan and design buildings, and make plans that show design specifications, the costs of building materials, and the building schedules.
- Sketch and build models for clients.
- Prepare drawings, specifications, and other construction documents for use by contractors and tradespeople, or oversee their creation.
- Prepare bid documents to be able to negotiate contracts and give out building contracts.
- Watch what is going on at construction sites to ensure the plans are followed.
- Building projects should have feasibility studies and financial analyses done.
- Architects may focus on one type of building, like residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional.
You might see these words in job ads for architects in Canada, along with the following tasks, duties, and responsibilities that architects in Canada usually have.
Understanding the Requirements for Architect Jobs in Canada
- You can improve your chances of being able to work as an architect in Canada by taking the following steps before you move there:
- If you go to Prepare For Canada seminars, you will learn everything you need to know about how to live and work in Canada.
- Find out how your international qualifications might be seen in Canada and learn about the Canadian job market in general.
- Contact both the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB) and the regulatory agency in the province or territory where you want to live and work. Find out how to get a permit, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. Find out what you can do to get a license before and after you move to a new country. CACB needs proof of your education, like degrees and original transcripts, so that it can compare your education to Canadian standards. The academic institution must send the paperwork directly to the CACB.
- On the Canadian Language Benchmarks website, you can take an online self-assessment to find out how good your language skills are.
- Sign up for language classes in your home country and keep them up when you move to Canada. To do the job, you must speak advanced English or French fluently (depending on your destination province). Even if you speak English or French well, it is still good to learn more about other languages.
- While you are still in your home country, get your official documents for school, work, and identity together and put them in order. Find out what other documents you’ll need to bring when you call them to find work or continue your studies. Find out which documents need to be translated. You might need a professional translation service in Canada.
- Learn how architects work in Canada and the rules, laws, and regulations that apply to architects in the province where you plan to live.
- Find out what the most common titles for architect jobs in Canada are.
Employment for Architects in Canada
Canada’s guide to jobs is the National Occupational Classification (NOC). It gives job descriptions, statistics about jobs, and information about the job market. See NOC 21200 for a full list of what architects do for a living.
Recognizing Credentials
It might be different to look for work in Canada than in your own country. So you might need help finding job openings, updating your resume, writing cover letters, getting ready for interviews, and knowing what Canadian employers look for.
In Canada, architects must be able to do the following:
- A bachelor’s degree in architecture from a well-known school (or completion of the syllabus of studies from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada)
- A three-year job under the supervision of a licensed architect
- Exam for registration
- Registration with the provincial or territorial association of architects in the area of work
- Some employers may want you to have a Master’s degree or a LEED certification.
The first step is to get in touch with the Canadian Architectural Certification Board to find out how your education will be looked at. After submitting a complete application packet, the evaluation takes about three months. The next steps in getting a license are an internship and an exam, which are handled by the appropriate provincial or territorial regulatory authority.
You should also:
- Find a mentor and fill out the Canadian Experience Record Book.
- To meet the experience requirement for getting a license, you need to do a certain number of hours of work in certain categories.
- Send in your previous work experience in architecture from your own country.
- Consider the Broadly Experienced Foreign Architects (BEFA) Program if you want to get a license in Canada. This bilingual project, which was made by the eleven Canadian Architectural Licensing Authorities (CALA), makes it easier for architects who were trained outside of Canada to get the certification they need to be licensed or registered in Canada.
Assessment of Credentials
If you want to enroll in a program at a college or university to advance your career, get in touch with the organization and ask what steps need to be taken. Also, find out if they insist you use a particular credential evaluation company. Using unregistered agencies might incur extra charges and costs.
Make a point of highlighting your experience and education abroad. Before deciding whether to continue your education, expand on your current knowledge and skills and thoroughly research your options for university and college.
You might be able to transfer some of your credits, get advanced standing, and use different methods of evaluating your prior learning to get credit or course exemptions. This will enable you to complete your program more quickly, save money, and avoid having to repeat college.
Credential Assessment Agencies:
- World Education Services (WES)
- Comparative Education Service: University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies
- International Qualifications Assessment Service – Alberta (IQAS)
- The International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)
Best Locations for Architect Jobs in Canada
The employment outlook for architects is generally favorable. Due to the anticipated growth in construction and the demand for architectural services, the number of architects is anticipated to increase slightly over the following few years.
Although most Canadian cities have jobs available in the architectural sector, Saskatchewan and Alberta are two of the provinces with the fastest population growth. When looking for a job, extend your search area to encompass nearby smaller cities and towns. For instance, if you plan to work in Toronto, you might discover a job opening in Hamilton, which is close by and less than an hour away.
To make your job search easier, research and discover where there is a higher demand for architects in Canada before deciding where you want to settle.
Upgrading Your Skills to Meet Architect Job Requirements
Soft skills, which are character traits that improve your interactions, work performance, and career prospects, are highly valued by Canadian employers. In contrast to your hard skills, your soft skills are more widely applicable.
Soft skills like leadership, effective communication, abstraction, strategic thinking, and negotiation abilities are crucial for architects. You must possess technical expertise, the ability to lead teams, and collaboration skills to work with various groups as an architect.
If your hard skills land you an interview, it’s likely that your soft skills will land you the job and help you keep it once you land it.
A bridging program or other educational courses and workshops may be a crucial step on your path to becoming a prosperous architect in Canada, though they are not required.
Skills Upgrading
Even if you have excellent technical skills, it is frequently not enough to land a job or keep one once you do. You might require additional training or skill development, particularly in the areas of teamwork and communication.
It is crucial for your future in Canada that you are fluent in either or both of its official languages, French or English. Which of the two languages is spoken by the majority in the area where you intend to live will determine whether you choose to concentrate on learning or improving English or French.
You might be qualified for the LINC program (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada). Otherwise, school boards or settlement organizations may offer additional free or reasonably priced English as a Second Language (ESL) or French as a Second Language (FSL) classes.
In Ontario, programs like Enhanced Language Training (ELT) and Occupation Specific Language Training (OSLT) can teach you how to speak in professional terms. Additionally, learning the other language is a good idea if you already speak one of Canada’s two official languages well because it may open up more job opportunities for you.
Job Search Techniques for Architects in Canada
Despite Canada’s competitive job market, the outlook for architects remains positive. You must therefore be ready and understand the job search process in order to find employment.
You must look for employment in the area where you plan to settle. Take your time creating a plan for finding work and learning about the job needs in that area as a result. In Canada, there are many ways to search for architect jobs.
- Include additional professions and industries in your search, such as design and construction.
- Look for a mentor in the architectural industry, such as a retired architect, who can offer you insightful advice and connect you to their network of other professionals.
- Join networking or job-search groups for businesses run by immigrant-serving organizations.
- Attend industry career fairs and routinely scan the job sections of your neighborhood newspapers.
- Examine job boards for associations as well as for colleges and universities.
- Organizations that support immigrants
- Most settlement agencies will help you prepare for job interviews, find employment, update your resume, and write cover letters.
Writing a Resume for Architect Jobs in Canada
Finding a job never gets any easier, particularly for architects who need to do so much more than just submit a resume (i.e., portfolios and work samples).
When creating your architect resume, emphasize your relevant educational background and area of expertise. There are many subfields of architecture (NOC 2151), each with its own set of professional obligations and educational prerequisites, such as landscape architecture, infrastructure architecture, system architecture, and so forth. Make sure your resume is tailored to the job profile of the position you’re applying for when creating it.
Conclusion
Architects (NOC 21200) develop plans and designs for new commercial, institutional, and residential construction projects. They might work for governments, businesses, or architectural firms, or they might work for themselves.
Success after arriving in Canada will depend on you continuing your career. Before moving to Canada, it is crucial to understand the employment requirements for architect positions there to help you restart your career. You should at the very least ensure that Canada will accept your international credentials. If your skills, knowledge, and experience match the requirements of the position, you might need to enroll in classes or pass tests to demonstrate your qualifications.
Following the law, if you want to work as an architect in Canada, you must be a full member of the province or territorial regulatory body. However, you are not required to be registered or licensed if you work for an architectural firm under the direction of an architect.
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), the country’s national architectural association represents the voice for architecture and its practice in Canada. There are almost 4,000 architects in it.
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