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2-Y Diploma or 2 Postgrad Certificates? Which is a safer bet for 3-year PGWPP?

funkymusic

Newbie
Feb 27, 2017
4
0
Hi everyone,

I am new in this forum and definitely need your help to take some important decisions in the next days. Let me present you my background in detail:
This is a 31 years old european citizen originally from Spain who is planning to pursue a program of 2 years length aiming to obtain qualified experience in my field and applying for PR later on.
I hold a 5 year degree in Business Administration in Spain which if I am not mistaken is equivalent to a combined bachelors+masters degree in the US according to WES (no clue about the equivalence in Canada) and have also recently received a Master of Science in Digital Marketing in France.
Professionally speaking I have +6 years experience working in car dealers and OEM headquarters marketing roles.

Before moving forward it is key to emphasize that I already completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Marketing at George Brown College back in 2013 but then I never applied for a Postgraduation Work Permit since I decided to go back to Europe upon graduation. I also worked as a co-op student and later as a part-time worker in a car dealer in Downtown Toronto in a marketing position.

Once this said, these are the points where I strongly need some recommendations/clarification (I've added some comments based on agents feedback):

1. Which is the safest pathway to obtain a 3 year PGWPP? Studying a 2-Year Diploma or 2 consecutive Postgraduate Certificates of one year each?

Diploma pros:
* I've heard that diplomas of 2 years are considered 4 semesters, in other words 2 full years (they seem to be a safer bet)

Diploma cons:
* Most of the 2-Year Diplomas I've found do not offer co-op terms which at the end of the day is a dissapointing as among my priorities is to gain interesting work experience in Canada

PGCert pros:
*Offer you the possibility to enrich your profile by specializing in 2 different fields. For example a PCert in Project Management and the second one in Marketing Management

PGCer cons:
* However some agents have warned me about the risk of taking 2 different PCert. Apparently this is seen by immigration officers as a non-sense with the only purpose of securing a visa afterwards.

*From what I've read here very often Immigration officers consider one year Ontario Graduate Certificates as studies of 8 months and accordingly grant postgraduate work permits of only 8 months. Is this true? By contrast some agents confirmed that all the students they managed who studied 2 consecutive PGCert obtained a 3 year PGWP. What are your thoughts on this?

2. Which are the best colleges in Toronto for business/marketing studies? Humber, George Brown, Seneca or Sheridan?

3. Should I study marketing? This is my prefered topic however I've been told that competition in this sector is fierce and natives get most of the jobs out there. I've been told that in order to have more job prospects upon graduation in the GTA, would be advisable to slightly lean towards business & finance related programs such as International Business, Marketing Finance, Project Management...

4. In Canada most international students come from Asian countries. Spaniards, we are a minority. Is this going to be an advantage when applying for PR? Does the government has a quota/limit for certain countries?

PLEASE HELP!!! I am about to apply for some colleges but first need your personal advices. Keeping in mind that I already graduated from a PGCert and never applied for work permit, do you think I am more likely to receive a 3-year PGWPP?

Looking forward to your responses!!
 

Bs65

VIP Member
Mar 22, 2016
13,187
2,419
Others can comment but I think given your qualifications as you say at Masters level, plus extensive marketing work experience and the fact that you have already completed a post grad in marketing in Canada that maybe the focus should first be on actually qualifying for another study permit even more so if applying to do another specific post grad marketing related subject unless of significant value add.

For PGWP most would vote for a 2 year course as opposed to 2x1 year courses given the logistics of applying for 2x1 year courses separately.
 

funkymusic

Newbie
Feb 27, 2017
4
0
thanks a lot!
Guys could you please advise on what is the safest way to secure 3 Year Work Permit?

Pursuing a diploma of 2 years or 2 consecutive Postgraduate Certificates of one year each?
 

funkymusic

Newbie
Feb 27, 2017
4
0
Is it mandatory to take PG diploma after graduation to minimize visa refusal risk?

Any suggestions from the visa office's point of view? Please help me regarding this.