Post-graduation work opportunities are one of the leading drivers of international student mobility. For students who want to stay in the country they study in, having confidence they can secure work in their desired field is vital.
Canada’s Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) Program continues to offer international students one of the most streamlined pathways to landing a job in their sector.
Today, we’re diving into freshly released IRCC data surrounding PGWP trends in 2022. We’ll dig into the numbers, look at the growth of the PGWP, and discuss the fastest-growing countries producing graduates who are seeking PGWP opportunities.
Key Insights at a Glance
- There were 130,897 PGWP approvals in 2022, 2,000 approvals short of breaking the single-year record set the previous year.
- There have been 35,000 PGWP approvals through February of 2023, over 27% of the total approvals in 2022.
- Students from Vietnam and Nigeria are pursuing the PGWP at a higher rate than any other nationality.
PGWP Enrollment Falls Slightly in 2022
The PGWP started as a very small, little-known program in 2005, when just 5,200 students were approved.1 But, as Canada has raised immigration targets and gained recognition as a top international education destination, this program has taken off:
The number of students approved for the PGWP in 2022 was 127% higher than in 2017. Steady growth has been the calling card of this popular program, which has boasted a 97% acceptance rate over the last five years.
However, 2022 marked the first time in 10 years that fewer students were approved for the PGWP than the year before. 130,897 new students were approved for the program in 2022, falling short of the record-breaking year of 2021 by just over 2,000 permits.
At first glance, this slight dip in year-over-year growth is odd, but it’s not significant enough to warrant any concern for a long-term drop-off. It’s likely that this dip in PGWP approvals is a product of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022 marks the first year that students who enrolled in two-year programs at institutions in 2020/2021 would be eligible for the PGWP. Deferrals alone could account for the drop-off we’re seeing here.
While we’ve only got two months of data for 2023, it’s overwhelmingly positive. Over 35,000 students were approved for the PGWP through February of this year. That’s over one-quarter of the total approvals granted in 2022.
We may continue to see the ripple effect of the pandemic on PGWP numbers for the next one to two years, but the volume of international students who are graduating during that time should mean that numbers will be trending back up in 2023.
Vietnam and Nigeria Pursuing PGWP At A Higher Rate
Students come to Canada with differing sets of intentions. Just because Canada is high on the wish list of students from certain countries, that does not mean they plan to stay, work, or immigrate following their studies.
We wanted to understand not only which students are staying in Canada to work after graduation, but also if that’s a common intention shared with their fellow citizens. To get an idea of what these trends look like, we compared the top countries by PGWP approvals in 2022 to student visa approvals in 2019, the year when a plurality of those students would have started their studies.
This is not a perfect science, as programs at Canadian institutions range from two to four years in length. But these comparisons provide us with strong indicators for what students from certain countries plan to do in Canada following graduation.
This list ranks the top 15 countries by PGWP approvals in 2022, while also indicating each country’s rank on the 2019 study permit approvals list. Countries in red ranked 3 spots or more higher in the 2019 study permit approval rankings than in the 2022 PGWP rankings. These are countries with larger numbers of students who are coming to Canada with the intention to return home following graduation.
Students from Brazil, Mexico, and the US appear to have less interest in pursuing post-graduation work in Canada than students from other countries. While we’re still seeing at least 1,000 students from each of these countries pursue post-graduation work in 2022, it’s likely that a large percentage of them are leaving Canada.
Countries in green indicate groups of students who are especially interested in remaining in Canada to work in their desired field after graduation. Students hailing from Vietnam and Nigeria are pursuing post-graduation work at a higher rate than any other nationality of student in Canada.
India and China will always be relevant countries in the PGWP conversation, but these other markets are primed to shape the future of the international education landscape in Canada. As students from certain countries begin to lay down roots in Canada, the likelihood that more of their fellow citizens follow in future years increases significantly.
Fastest-Growing PGWP Countries in 2022
As students become more focused on their post-graduation work goals than ever before, it’s important to pay attention to countries that are making the PGWP a priority. Students from these nations are likely to make a big impact on Canada’s economy over the next several years.
The following table ranks the fastest-growing countries by PGWP approvals from 2021 to 2022:
The runaway leader in this group is Sri Lanka, posting a 70% increase in PGWP approvals between 2021 and 2022. That’s nearly 30 percentage points higher than second-place Turkey and over 60 percentage points clear of the average year-over-year growth of 8%.2
Sri Lanka is also the fastest-growing country by PGWP approvals since 2019, posting a 3-year growth rate of 160%.
Sri Lanka is a small but high-potential country that has emerged as one of the fastest-growing source markets in Canada. Nearly 4,000 Sri Lankan students came to study in Canada in 2022, a 450% increase from 2020.
With the exception of Turkey and Egypt, the rest of the countries on this list were top 15 source markets for international education in Canada in 2022. Moving forward, students who display a willingness to study in Canada and work there following graduation will be the ones who build lasting communities across the country.
Why Students Should Choose Programs Based on Labour Shortages
Students from all over the world have made it clear that post-graduation work is a top priority. With an approval rate of over 97% last year, the PGWP provides students with a plan to address that priority.
But in order for that plan to continue to work for future generations of international students, students must pay attention to the evolving job market. Canada recently raised its immigration targets to address labour shortages in certain sectors. Incoming students should be mindful of where those shortages lie as they map out their post-graduation journey.
Asking the question, “Is it likely that I’ll be able to secure employment in my trained field?” is a simple but necessary one to ensure ease of transition into the workforce following graduation.
Recruitment partners and schools would do well to help students map out their future by looking at fields of study whose sectors are hiring and using this information to reverse engineer a student journey that can help them land a job in that sector. International student totals are reaching all-time highs every year. Given this reality, students need to do everything they can to equip themselves with a plan to stay ahead.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. All data courtesy of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), unless otherwise noted.
