@ canadamylove
I just gave Canadian Employer's perspective..............
Dear try to understand the most important thing, what ever suggestions other give are general and -ive/+ive opinion u get are specific to personal experience.
Now u r in IT field, which remains same all over the globe........ so in most cases u guys are not required to have some Canadian course if u have expertise in the language/program being commonly used in Canada. U may easily get job at same position or one step below.
I am in finance and have CFA (an US based exam readily acceptable in Canada) but the mkts here are different, so i may have to do an apprenticeship to know abt the mkt before getting reasonable job.
Lets take example of an engineer, the basics remains the same but technology may be different for which he may have to do some diploma.
The other extreme are Doctors, their education although accepted for immigration is not easily accepted for profession (unless from US) and they have to take few exams to enter the mkt.
Net net, "the additional required" depends upon everyone's personal circumstances, experience and knowledge. The given advise are general i.e. "fit all scenario" .... its up to u to pick them wisely. The 98% figure is again from "vocal group", which mainly comprises of ppl with -ive experiences, others r too busy in their life to share their good experiences.
ECA is just initial basic filter, mainly to
1. Authenticate the educational documents as initially many ppl committed fraud or has degrees from university of no standing, even in their own country i.e., mainly "purchasable degrees" no offense meant, even US & Canada have this type of educational institutions.
2. To check applicant's commitment level, otherwise any1 can fill few forms and send the app across, if he has valid IELTS. You might have some bad experience with ECA, otherwise for most of us it was smooth (required few hours to collect the docs, get them attested by the university and then simply wait for few weeks. Hardly 7-8 work hours required.
