Well, I have a Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems from a university here in the United States and an Associate's in Computer Programming at a 2 year college here. Both classes were very hands on. We learned about many different types of programming languages such as COBOL, C#, C++, Java, etc. and actually used it on the computer using development kits. Because of this, the department head of the Computer section at my 2 year college actually told us to put down that we have 2 years of experience as a programmer when searching for a job. But that isn't paid work experience.
Right now I only have 63 points, but according to this post on these forums:
canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/breaking-news-july-2011-same-29-nocs-500-cap-t74920.0.html;msg839740#msg839740
I would have 69 points with a job offer.
But I'm confused on whether or not it's 100% required to have at least one year of work experience if you have a job offer. I mean.. if you have a job offer, you must be qualified, right? I'm qualified for the jobs in Canada that say 0-2 years of experience and want you to have basic knowledge in programming and classroom experience so I could try to get a job offer any time for those jobs. By the time I even apply I would have 6 months of work experience so I guess I would be trained somewhat in the workforce which may satisfy HRSDC and if that doesn't, we could go with the 'Canadian cannot be trained in a reasonable amount of time' option, which I would fulfill on the basis that Canadian workers are 82% as productive as American workers based on RePEc data.