A Guide to the Federal Skilled Worker Program (Part 3)

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this guide, we went over the work experience and language skills required for the Federal Skilled Worker Program. In Part 3, we will go over the education requirements for Express Entry.

Education Requirements for Express Entry

What you’ll want to do to check whether you meet the education requirements depends on where you got your degree.

If you went to school in Canada, you must have a certificate, diploma or degree from a Canadian secondary institution (high school) or post-secondary institution i.e. university, college or trade school.

If you have foreign education, you need to get an assessment done to determine what the Canadian equivalent is. This is called an educational Credential Assessment (ECA) that must be from a designated organization.

As defined by the Government of Canada, an educational credential is “any diploma, degree, trade or apprenticeship credential issued for completing a program of study or training at a recognized educational or training institution.”

An educational institution is defined by the Government of Canada as “an organization that offers academic, technical or vocational programs of study, like a university or college.”

The ECA is used to verify that your foreign degree, diploma, or certificate (or other proof of your credential) is valid and equal to a Canadian one. When obtaining yours, make sure you get an ECA for immigration purposes and you must include your ECA report and the reference number in your Express Entry profile.

How to Get An Educational Credential Assessment

You can order an ECA from the authorized organizations that provide ECA’s, which are:

The designated professional bodies that provide licensing credential assessments (if applicable) are:

If you think you may be eligible for Express Entry, sign up for our free immigration portal here or head to Part 4 of the guide to learn about the minimum funds required for an Express Entry application.

For more information about the Federal Skilled Worker Program visit the Immigration Canada website here and here.

Written by Josh Schachnow

Josh Schachnow is a Toronto-based immigration lawyer. After spending 2+ years growing his own law firm and helping hundreds of immigrants and companies navigate Canadian immigration, he realized there was no technology to help make the process easy. So he started Visto, in an effort to automate all of the things he spent years doing manually – generating checklists, filling out forms, sending documents for signature, and more. He now spends most of his time talking to new clients, partners and working closely with the tech team to continue to improve the platform.