Any incoming international students will be given both study and work permits as of June 1, allowing for part-time employment during regular study periods.

Prior to that, it was a much more complex and lengthy process.

“Before June 1 this year, all post-secondary level students, if they’re full time, after six months studying full time at a post-secondary level, they could apply for an off-campus work permit,” said Joy Jia, immigration and employment advisor at the International Centre. “It’s not that simple.”

Gaining work experience is valuable to students, both Canadian and international.

“I look at it as, number one, helping them improve their language skills,” said Jia. “It helps students settle or adjust into the new culture and get mixed into society and understanding the work placement.”

“It will also help them after they graduate with their job search, because they already have some working experience.”

According to the International Centre’s Student Life Co-ordinator Jennifer Fitzgerald, having a work permit in addition to a study permit can be a “double-edged sword.”

“Although they can work, their academics should come first,” she said. “If their academics falter at all because they’re working, that could impact their ability to stay. They must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0, [and] they must be full time students in order to work.”

But with a work permit comes rules and conditions.

“[An] off-campus work permit will allow the student to work 20 hours per week during regular academic sessions and up to full time if they are on a scheduled academic break,” said Jia. Full-time hours are only allowed on summer and reading week breaks.

The hours – 20 per week – are set by law, and Jia said that intentional or not, some students are breaking the law by working more and in other ways.

“A lot of students are already breaking the law without knowing they’re breaking them,” she said. “Some of them work more than 20 hours during school time.”

But when study permits expire, so do work permits.

“A lot of the time we have students who want to study another program after they finish one, then they start to work in between,” she said. “That is totally not allowed. They’re not considered a registered, full-time student … It’s not a scheduled academic break.”

Opportunities are there for the taking, but International Student Life Co-ordinator Cynthia Konnerth said it’s a two-way street and students have to seek them out.

“When we held workshops for resume writing, two students showed up,” said Konnerth. “They should [attend] … it’s advertised on the portal, it’s on Facebook … I think they’re so busy studying that they’re not thinking.”

“The whole concept of learning how to find work is something the students can take responsibility for, and there are so many resources to do this … They’re not thinking about the finding work piece and they have a work permit, but without a job, it’s useless.”

The International Centre in E2025 is open to all Fanshawe international students to make this new transition a smooth one.