Finding Quality Child Care
Choosing quality child care for your family is a very important decision. You want to find a safe, healthy environment that supports the social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional development of your children.
There are many types of child care available:
Day care programs serve infants, toddlers and pre-school-aged children.
Family day homes offer care in a private residence. There are typically six or fewer children, including the caregiver’s own children, with one caregiver.
Group family child care programs offer care in a private residence. There are typically between seven and 10 children with two caregivers.
Out-of-school-care programs operate before and after school, during lunch hours and sometimes when school is closed.
Pre-school program that offers child care for four or fewer hours per day for pre-school aged children
Finding the best arrangement for your family takes time and planning, but it is worth the effort. Here is a quick list of things to consider before making your choice.
To learn more important steps to settling in Canada, make sure that you attend Prepare for Canada’s Settlement in Canada Online Fair.
At the fair, you’ll learn all about the careers and settlement opportunities that are available by province so that you can make an informed choice on where to live.
Remember to Register Now to avoid missing out on this great career opportunity.
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You know your child best. Think about where he or she will be most comfortable. List your needs. For example, if your child needs a lot of quiet time, a large, busy centre may not be the best choice. Some points to consider are:
Your child’s age
The types of activities your child enjoys
The number and ages of children your child enjoys being with
Any food allergies or food preferences that must be accommodated
Also, each program will have different approach to how they offer child care and may provide different services, such as snacks or meals. Other things to consider are your work hours, location, and cost. Do you require assistance with your child care fees for your pre-school children?
Locate a child care facility or family day home agency
The next step is to find a child care program. A good way to find a program is to ask friends and neighbours for references. You can also contact your local child and family services office for a list of child care programs or use our online tool to find a program.
Visit a child care program
It is very important that you visit each program that you are considering. This allows you to ask questions and to see first-hand the kind of care offered.
When you are making your visit, there are a number of things you should be looking for, such as:
Are the facility and equipment clean and in good condition?
Is space arranged for children to freely choose activities?
Are toys and equipment in reach of all children?
Do toys and equipment suit the ages and sizes of all children?
Are there enough toys for the number of children?
Is there a program listing daily activities?
Can children choose from a variety of activities?
Do activities suit the ages of the children?
Do children appear relaxed and involved in activities?
Is there room for outdoor play?
Nutrition
Does food for all children meet the standards in Canada’s Food Guide or Alberta’s Nutritional Food Guidelines?
Do caregivers sit with children during meals?
Health and Safety
Do staff and children wash their hands before and after diapering or toileting?
Are medications stored in a locked container, out of reach of children?
Is all indoor and outdoor equipment clean and safe?
Do staff have training in child care first aid?
Child care staff and providers
How many staff per child are present?
What is the training of staff?
Are staff engaged and involved with children?
Do staff calmly reassure children who are upset?
As you are an immigrant to Canada, you will no doubt be thinking seriously about how you will integrate into Canadian life. One of the biggest challenges that I experienced as soon as I landed in Canada as a permanent resident is navigating the unspoken social rules of etiquette in Canada. This was true of my personal relationships as well as professional ones.
Social norms in Canada an immigrant to Canada
- In general, Canadians are known to be polite, friendly and honest, but not too direct or blunt. This is especially true in the workplace. You may find this a little different to the workplace culture that you are used to but you will surprise yourself with how quickly you will get used to it.
- Make sure that you make a good first impression. This is especially important for job interviews in Canada.
- Canadians respect privacy and really like their personal space. This is probably because there is so much space in Canada with such a small population. You should bear this in mind when you are talking to people. It doesn’t hurt to give people at least an arm’s length space during conversations.
- Canadians will be more relaxed when talking to different generations as there are no formal or linguistic rules to observe when it comes to speaking to your elders or superiors.
- Canadians believe in freedom of religion. However, this is considered a private matter usually and you will not find people being overly verbose about their views unless asked. If you feel comfortable feel free to ask polite questions. Most people are open to learning new things and sharing their knowledge.
- When you meet someone for the first time, you should shake hands with them firmly.
- Eye contact is important to show respect, sincerity, attention, and focus.
- There is gender equality in social settings and business.
- You can negotiate for a lot of things, usually more expensive items like TVs and cars. You should not expect to bargain in a smaller store. You should also feel comfortable negotiating your salary as an immigrant to Canada.
- Punctuality is very important in Canada as it shows that you respect each other. Ideally, you should aim to be a few minutes early for most of your appointments.
- Expressions and colloquialisms are used a lot in Canada, you should always ask if you don’t understand something that a person has said. The English language is full of surprises.
Top tips for negotiating your salary in Canada
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How to meet people
There are a number of ways that you can get involved with your new community as an immigrant to Canada, from volunteering to sports clubs. You can also meet people through meetup groups for newcomers on websites like Meetup.com and Eventbrite. This can be a great way to meet people if you are a little unsure of where to start. You don’t have to do this, but it is a great way to get settled into your new community and feel at home. Networking this way can be a very effective approach to find work in Canada and increase your chances of promotion.
Canadian manners
One thing that many Canadians pride themselves in is how polite they are. This is a wonderful quality that is really infectious. This extends itself far beyond the typical please and thank yous. You will find that even in professional settings all people are treated with great respect at all times. You should not use your phone while other people are speaking or if you are in a meeting. If it is something urgent then you can excuse yourself but if you show others this respect they will return it in kind.
Learn more about how you can get settled in Canada by joining the Know Before You Go Webinar. Get all the information you need about how to best go about preparing to land in Canada and what to do after you get here.
There is a new scam out there that many Canadians have fallen victim to. Many scammers will target recent immigrants to Canada as they are less likely to identify a scam as they are exposed to so many new things every day. For this reason, it is very important to stay on your guard. Everyone has heard of phishing scams that try to get your personal information via email. Usually, the scammers will masquerade as a financial institution, the police, or immigration officials asking for personal details. But, have you ever heard of vishing?
Vishing: what does that even mean?
Vishing can happen in only a few seconds over the phone. You can reveal a lot of personal information to a scammer, even without meaning to. The name “vishing” comes from a blend of the word ‘voice’ with ‘phishing,’ This is a telephone scam to tricks people into revealing critical financial or personal information that can be used for identity theft. It is vitally important that you are aware of these scams and actively protect yourself at all times. It can be easy to give out information over the phone when you’re distracted.
How it works
You receive a call from a scammer, it will typically be an obviously computer generated voice or recording. This voice will then tell you any number of lies to get you to volunteer information or to call them back. They may state that your identity has been stolen, that you need to pay money for your immigration to remain valid or even something as simple as an approval for a credit card. These vishing scams are carefully targeted. As a newcomer, you will be expecting calls from your bank as you set up an account, so it is important to verify who you’re speaking with.
What to do if you suspect vishing?
You need to remain calm and not provide any personal information. If you suspect that the call is a vishing attempt, simply hang up. You should never call the number they say. If they claim to be from a financial institution or the government, look online for their official website and call the number you find on the site to confirm.
The key thing to remember is that you need to do your research on any company or business that you are going to provide your personal information to. The internet is your friend here, you can google the phone number and see if anyone else has had negative experiences with calls from this number. The same can be said for any type of scam. Never let yourself be pressured into anything without doing this research. It only takes a moment to do your due diligence. So, make sure that you do not rush into giving your name, date of birth, or anything else to someone without first know exactly who you’re dealing with.
Virtual fairs are fast becoming one of the most convenient ways to speak directly to who you need to, there’s no longer any need to wake up early, travel across the country, set up a booth and spend several days at the location. Not only are virtual fairs a more convenient way to engage with people, they are much easier and more effective. They also provide a much higher return on investment.
Prepare for Canada is launching a series of career fairs that give settlement and government agencies, education providers a platform to speak directly to newcomers to Canada, both before and after they arrive.
Learn more about how Virtual Fairs are changing the way people connect with companies like yours.
Virtual fairs are able to allow newcomers to find out the information you want to deliver to them in a clear and concise way and as each attendee is required to provide contact information before they can enter the virtual environment, you will have the ability to follow up with supplementary materials and details on your services.
Tips for hiring firms going virtual:
Make your booth stand out – The provider of the virtual fair will ask you for some creatives so that they can build out your virtual booth. This will usually be your logo and some downloadable assets such as brochures or presentations. You should also be able to work on a live webinar that can be shown to attendees at the time of the fair.
Get your best team ready – As the virtual fair is a great way to connect with newcomers to Canada before and after they arrive, you will want to make sure that you have your best people available to talk to them while they are at the fair. This can make a huge difference to how effective you can be on a day to day basis.
Have a clear message – Just as you would at a traditional fair, you should make it clear what you and your company do and how you can help newcomers to Canada.
Give attendees something to remember you by – You will need to be able to offer those who come to your booth with something that they cannot get elsewhere. This could be worksheets, ebooks, presentation documents or anything that they can take away with them and refer back to.
Acknowledge attention – Thank everyone who visits your booth
Have a plan to re-engage – After the fair is over you should have a plan in place to follow up with everyone that you spoke to at the fair. This will allow you to make sure that you are getting the most you can out of your investment in attending the fair and also serve as a healthy reminder to attendees.
Online fairs also offer an unparalleled ability to communicate with those who attended the fair and visited your virtual booth. The audience can be segmented and you can provide them each with the information that is pertinent to them. Get in touch with a representative from Prepare For Canada to learn more about how the upcoming online fairs can help you achieve your goals.
The way that newcomers to Canada find work has changed. Looking for ads in local newspapers and magazines have become a thing of the past. Now it seems that the best way to find out about the latest and greatest jobs is online. Technologies such as online career fairs have helped to improve the ability for companies and recruiters to contact the right candidates.
While online job boards have proven very successful, there has not been a way for companies that rely on in-person job fairs to replicate the experience online until now.
The standard format of career fairs has a major flaw when it comes to reaching out to immigrants to Canada during the pre-arrival stage. Quite simply, they are not in the country to attend. There is some great news though, Virtual fairs are able to bridge this gap and allow you to speak directly with future newcomers to Canada anywhere in the world.
The benefits to taking part in an online fair when hoping to speak with the pre-arrival immigrant community are great.
At a virtual or online fair, you will be able to speak directly with newcomers from the comfort of your own office. Avoiding the need to get in a car and travel to the location of the fair.
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Recruit and inform worldwide
You will have the ability to communicate with newcomers from anywhere in the world as they prepare to leave their home country and get on a plane to Canada.
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Job seekers are already online doing their pre-arrival research
Online is where a great deal of the pre-arrival research is done by newcomers, this is because they don’t have access to traditional media in Canada. For this reason, you can be sure that they are online and ready to learn about potential opportunities in Canada.
You don’t need to bring a lot of resources to an event, just log in from anywhere and speak to attendees.
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Save time, money, and resources
Your team will not need to give up multiple days of work to travel, setup and present at the event. Online fairs streamline the whole process.
Prepare For Canada’s online fair series provides those that are committed to helping newcomers settle in Canada more benefits than a traditional fair at a fraction of the cost (no travel, accommodation, brochure expense, etc.)
Traditional shows involve investment in time and money in booth costs, preparation costs, travel and accommodation costs. Virtual fairs give you the targeted audience you want in a more cost effective manner.
Online fairs also offer an unparalleled ability to communicate with those who attended the fair and visited your virtual booth. The audience can be segmented and you can provide them each with the information that is pertinent to them. Get in touch with a representative from Prepare For Canada to learn more about how the upcoming online fairs can help you achieve your goals.
Q. I’m preparing to move from Pakistan to Winnipeg. I have lots of furniture, expensive jewellery and other possessions, and I am just wondering what I am allowed to bring with me? (more…)
