NOC 2021: New Provision by Canada Immigration

Canada's new way of sorting jobs will affect some of the economic classes and applicants for foreign temporary workers.

Canada's immigration system will overhaul how it classifies autumn jobs by 2022.

The changes will affect some of the economic classes and applicants for foreign workers, although the federal government has not yet commented on the type of applicants that will be affected.

Canada's job classification system is called the National Occupational Classification (NOC). The NOC is reviewed annually and is updated every five years to ensure it reflects the changing Canadian labor market. It is revised every 10 years, making the new edition the largest update since 2011. Statistics Canada released its new edition NOC 2021 last month.

The NOC is important for immigration to Canada as it is used by the federal and state governments to manage professional migration programs and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). Immigrants or temporary foreign workers must meet the NOC eligibility requirements for the program they are applying for.

For example, under Express Entry, professional immigration travel applicants must demonstrate work experience for the NOC under one of the following rules:

NOC 0: Type of profession 0 are managerial in nature;

NOC A: Professional type A work is a professional nature and usually requires a college degree; or

NOC B: Vocational B jobs are skilled trade jobs that often require a college diploma or apprenticeship.

The Department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship of Canada (IRCC), and the provinces and territories of Canada, are currently using NOC 2016 to assess the eligibility of professional workers' immigration programs.

The Canadian Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) was also using NOC 2016 to evaluate the Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications.

LMIA is a Canadian government labor market test. Required for the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). When evaluating an LMIA application, the ESDC must determine whether hiring a foreigner will have a positive or neutral impact on Canadian workers. At this point, foreign workers can take the LMIA and job application forms to support the IRCC's work permit applications.

NOC 2021 Implementation in “fall 2022”

The IRCC said the federal government expects to be able to introduce a new way of sorting jobs at some point in "autumn 2022". She said this will give the IRCC time to inform stakeholders about changes and implementation of the new system in all its programs. The IRCC is also complying with the ESDC release to ensure the sustainability of the work permit application process.

New TEER system replaces NOC skill levels

Instead of sorting out jobs based on the type of profession, the Canadian government will now categorize jobs based on a new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibility (TEER) system.

Currently, NOC skill levels fall into four categories: A, B, C, and D.

NOC 2021 avoids this approach and introduces a TEER system with six components: TEER category 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

TEER 0	Management occupations.
TEER 1	University degree (bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate); or Many years of experience in a particular occupation from TEER category 2 (if applicable).
TEER 2	Post-secondary education certificate with the duration of two to three years at community college, institute of technology or CÉGEP; or Completion of a training program with the  duration of two to five years; or Employment with supervisory or significant safety like police officers and firefighters job responsibilities; or Many years of experience in a particular occupation from TEER category 3 (if applicable).
TEER 3	A post-secondary education certificate of duration not more than two years at community college, institute of technology or CÉGEP; or Apprenticeship for less than 2 years; or Six or more months of on-job training, training courses, or specific working experience with some secondary school education; or Many years of experience in a particular occupation from TEER category 4 (if applicable).
TEER 4	Completion of secondary school; or On-Job training of many weeks with some secondary school education; or Many years of experience in a particular occupation from TEER category 5 (if applicable).
TEER 5	Small work experience and no formal educational requirements.

What is the reason behind the change of the NOC system to the TEER system as per the Canadian Government?

Statistics Canada explains this change is necessary for a number of reasons.

First, the definition of “professional standards” skills is confusing, as the GOS focuses on work and not skills. Introducing the TEER system will focus on the education and experience needed to work in a given profession.

Second, Statistics Canada argues that the early NOC classification system naturally creates high-level and high-level triage. This redesign moves from high/low classification to accurately perform the skills required for each task.

What does this mean for immigrants?

When NOC 2021 is implemented by the IRCC and ESDC, immigration applicants and foreign workers must ensure that the NOS meets the eligibility requirements for the program they are applying for.

For example, a major area of ​​interest is how the IRCC and ESDC choose to differentiate between the jobs currently defined in the “B” skill level. According to Canadian statistics, this group has grown significantly over time, as it includes jobs that require different levels of education and experience. At this time, it is not known which TEER components will be eligible for Express Entry managed programs as well as other federal and state programs that currently require “skilled NOC”.

Now, immigration applicants will need to patiently wait for the IRCC and ESDC to provide further information.

NOC 2016: Distribution of Groups by Skill Level		NOC 2021: Distribution of  Groups by TEER
		TEER Category 0	9%
Skill Level A	28%	TEER Category 1	19%
Skill Level B	42%	TEER Category 2	31%
Skill Level C	24%	TEER Category 3	13%
Skill Level D	6%	TEER Category 4	18%
		TEER Category 5	9%

The new TEER system has 516 jobs, up from 500 at NOC 2016. New jobs have been created to reflect emerging areas of data science, cybersecurity, and more.

You can see how your current NOC compares to NOC 2021 using the following Statistics Canada tool.