Dental Assistants can now relocate to Canada through Express Entry as the job has been added to the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) programme.
The change to the FSW followed efforts by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to solve labour shortages in the North American country with the announcement of 16 new jobs to its list of eligible occupations.
Need for Dental Assistants: Earlier in August last year, Dr Brian Barrett, the Executive Director of the Dental Association of Prince Edward Island, lamented over the shortage of Dental Hygienists and Dental Assistants. He noted that the Canadian healthcare sector is at a loss as to how to address this challenge.
- “The only way is to train a great many more and as it can’t be done very quickly, the problem will be here for several years. The average age is also increasing so more are also retiring so no fast fix is going to occur,” he said.
Dental Assistant positions: Currently, there are many Dental Assistant and other related positions available for qualified applicants from around the world. Some of these positions are listed below-
- Certified dental assistant
- Certified intra-oral dental assistant
- Chair-side assistant – dental
- Dental aide
- Dental assistant
- Dental clinical assistant
- Intra-oral dental assistant
- Licensed dental assistant
- Preventive dental assistant
- Registered dental assistant
According to Glassdoor, the median annual wage for a Dental Assistant in Canada is $51,288.
What this means for Nigerian applicants: Foreign applicants such as those from Nigeria seeking permanent residence through the FSW must have one year of paid work experience in jobs classified as TEER 0, 1, 2, or 3 of the NOC 2021 system within the last decade.
Applicants for this program must also pass a language test to demonstrate that they have the necessary language skills to successfully establish themselves in Canada. Language tests assess an applicant’s abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Furthermore, the applicant needs to obtain at least the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 7 in all categories and show that he or she has enough money to support him or herself and any relatives upon arrival in Canada.
