How upskilling loans for immigrants ‘empower Canada’

Anoopriya Ramachandran wanted to continue her career as a software engineer when she moved to Toronto in 2018 from her home country of India. Soon after arriving, she faced a hurdle: she needed Canadian training before she was able to work in her field.

Upskilling takes money, and she and her husband were already living off their savings. Without long-established credit in Canada or sufficient collateral, it seemed almost impossible to get a loan, which compounded the challenges of living in her new country.

Then Ms. Ramachandran heard about Windmill Microlending, which gives loans to Canadian newcomers for the purposes of getting reaccredited in their profession or embarking on a new one. The not-for-profit organization offers clients loans at lower interest rates than other financial institutions. Its aim is to get skilled immigrants into the Canadian workforce doing the work they were trained for.

“It was really helpful for us getting the loan from Windmill,” says Ms. Ramachandran, who used the money to complete a bridging program at Humber College and quickly landed a software engineering position.