Four hours a week
Blocked out and protected. Preparation fails on time, not talent. If you cannot find four hours this quarter, apply next quarter instead.
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For candidates
You are not starting over. You are translating.
The experience you already have is the asset. What is missing is usually a set of documents, a rewritten file and two or three people who can vouch for you in the market you are entering. This page tells you honestly whether we are the right fit, and gives you a check you can take right now.
Fit
Who this
Who this
is for, and
who it
is not.
This programme fits you if
- You have real professional or technical experience, usually two years or more, that you can evidence.
- Your qualification or licence was earned outside the market you are now trying to enter.
- You can work in English well enough to hold a technical conversation, even if it tires you.
- You can commit four hours a week for twenty six weeks, and you are honest with yourself about that.
- You want the preparation, not just the introductions. People who only want the introductions do not finish.
This programme does not fit you if
- You need immigration advice or representation. That is regulated work and we are not licensed to do it.
- You are looking for visa sponsorship. We do not sponsor and we cannot arrange it.
- You want a guaranteed job at the end. No honest programme can offer that, including this one.
- You are at the very start of a career with no work history yet. We would waste your year.
- You need income support during the programme. We cannot provide financial assistance of any kind.
If we are not the fit
We will say so, in writing, with a reason and with the names of organisations that may be better suited. A rejection from us is not a judgement on your career. It usually means the timing or the route is wrong, and both of those change.
Readiness check
Eight questions.
Eight questions.
Two minutes.
Nothing stored.
This runs entirely in your browser. We do not see your answers, we do not ask for your email, and nothing is saved when you close the page. Answer honestly, since flattering yourself here only costs you time later.
Question 1 of 8
A note on trades and licensed professions
Not everything here is an office job.
Electricians, welders, machinists, lab technicians, paramedics and nurses face the hardest version of this problem, because their work is governed by licences rather than opinions. A hiring manager can take a chance on a developer. A hospital cannot take a chance on a registration.
That makes the sequence more important, not less. For licensed work the route usually runs through an assessment body, a supervised practice period and an exam, in that order, and starting anywhere else wastes months. We map that route in stage one and we will tell you plainly if it runs longer than the programme does.
If the honest answer is that your route takes three years, you deserve to hear it in week one rather than discover it in month nine.
What we ask of you
The programme
The programme
is free. It is
not costless.
We ask for four things. None of them are money. All of them are harder than money for most people, which is why we say them out loud before you apply.
Honesty about gaps
Overstated experience surfaces in the first technical conversation with a mentor and costs you the relationship. Understated experience is just as damaging.
Response within 72 hours
To us, to your mentor, to a partner introduction. A slow reply to an introduction is the fastest way to lose one, and we only get a few.
Pay it back
Everyone who finishes is asked to mentor someone in a later cohort. Not required, asked. Almost everyone says yes, which is the part of this that actually compounds.
Costs you may still face
We are free. The system around us is not.
This is the paragraph most organisations leave out. Participation costs you nothing, but the external steps in your route often carry fees that we do not control and cannot waive.
- Credential evaluation typically runs between one hundred and three hundred dollars depending on the body and the country.
- Recognised English tests generally cost between fifty and three hundred dollars, and expire after two years.
- Certified translations are charged per document, often twenty five to sixty dollars each.
- Licensing exams and registration fees vary enormously by profession and jurisdiction.
Where donor funding allows, we cover some of these costs for participants who cannot meet them. That support is limited, it is allocated by need, and we will tell you what is available before you commit rather than after. See where support goes.
After you apply
Four steps, and
Four steps, and
a written answer
either way.
- Application received. Acknowledged within three working days with a reference number.
- Review. Two reviewers score independently against the published rubric.
- Conversation. Shortlisted applicants have one call, about forty minutes, focused on your route rather than your motivation.
- Decision. In writing, with reasons, whether the answer is yes or no.
Submitting an application does not guarantee acceptance, employment, immigration assistance, financial assistance, or any specific outcome.
Next step
Ready when you are.
The application takes about fifteen minutes and asks nothing you would not tell a colleague. If you would rather ask a question first, a person reads that inbox.