Foundation Program

Senior Commercial Finance
Compass Group Canada

Shoaeb Khan joined the program as a way to bridge the gap between his education and the demands of the Canadian labor market. As a newcomer to Canada from Kuwait, Shoaeb faced many challenges in finding employment. “I was looking for a bridge program from a well-known and respected university in Canada. IEP program is rock solid in its foundation and was well established”.

The IEP program provided him with the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the Canadian workplace culture. “Starting from the language courses to workplace culture. All these courses are an integral part of the process for a newcomer to understand and be successful in their journey here in Canada”. Shoaeb also realized that alongside learning new skills he also had to unlearn some practices and to adapt the Canadian workplace and be successful in his journey. He explained, he was “unaware of what was required to be successful. After enrolling in the courses there were several things which I had to unlearn and they were outdated practices which do not hold any value from a Canadian perspective”.

He advises newcomers to focus on their strengths, pick a line of work, and focus to become subject matter experts instead of dabbling into too many things, “a focused approach in that context will lead to decent employment”. He explained that the program is “to assist newcomers to understand the Canadian Market and bridge the gaps in their education with a local program that is well respected and recognized”.