How to Know Your NOC Code and Filling up the Work Experience Form?

I have received few inquiries from my email Subscribers. One of which is about this problem, and it's time to clarify the issue.  Here are their messages...

"..my job positions are not exactly matched stated but the job description as I believe are all the same. One of example is System Administrator and my current position is Systems Engineer. There was no indicated main duties on the website but in general, the main duties of Systems Engineer covers with System Administrator description. I have a lot of positions where the job descriptions are covered on the list in NOC but the titles are not match.

Do you think the Canada Visa office would recognized that? Most of my COE has no job description included and even in contract letter has not stated as well..." - J.C. (please let me know if you want your name divulged)

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"...im still confused. what will i write on the IMM0008 (E Schedule 3) work experience part:
From To Occupation NOC Years of Experience Main DutiesAsst. Res. Engineer 2131
Should i write my current job position under the Occupation Part or the equivalent based based on job duties?..." - M.A. (please let me know if you want your name divulged)

The advice and tips that I will provide you is based on my experience when I applied for the Federal Skilled Worker Canada.  I recommend that you seek second or third opinions to other advisers or agents as well.

Job Position or Title Explained
In every country, they have their own job titles which they think will easily attract the job seekers or also known as talents.

Like in Canada, a person who goes out and meet customers, repair the machines at the customer's site is called the JourneyMan.  While if you do this kind of job in Singapore, you can be called as a Service Engineer or Service Technician.  Doing this same kind of  job in Philippines is a Technician.

"a person who goes out and meet customers, repair the machines at the customer's site"

Canada - Journeyman
Singapore - Service Technician or Service Engineer
Philippines - Technician

As you can see, they are all doing the same kind of job, but they are tagged differently.  They differ in their job titles because of the terms used and according to the country's history.

Another example is the AutoCad Draftsmen and the AutoCad Draughtsman.  These two jobs have a similar job descriptions, but they have different job titles. This is because,

Draftsmen - American English
Draughtsman - British English

Job titling almost has the same concept of marketing, which you have to create the best name of the brand, in this case is the job, making it more locally recognizable and egoistically appealing.

Who doesn't want to have a job of cleaning floors with a namecard description of "Floor Manager"?

Same job, different titles.

What is NOC in Canada?
In the Federal Skilled Worker Program in Canada, we can encounter this name NOC or the National Occupational Classification.

According to the the Employment and Social Development in Canada (ESDC),

"The National Occupational Classification (NOC), provides a standardized language for describing the work performed by Canadians in the labour market. It gives statisticians, labour market analysts, career counselors, employers and individual job seekers a consistent way to collect data and describe and understand the nature of work." -ESDC 

To ease up the confusion of job titles and descriptions, Canada had created a standard and listed it in the NOC with versions on year 2006 and 2011.

At the NOC, each job title has its own code, depending on the skill level, and it is classified and described in accordance with the standard.

How To Determine the Equivalent NOC 2011 Code?
The NOC 2011 occupation code is important when applying for the FSW Canada program.  It is the first factor that determines the eligibility of an applicant.  The applicant's occupation should be included at the 50 eligible occupations list.

But how do you know if your current or previous job is included in the list?

To have a complete NOC 2011 equivalency of your current or previous occupation, you need to provide an evidence such as a complete Certificate of Employment (COE) indicating the job description of your occupation and other details as required by the FSW Canada.

Check out the complete requirements at the STEP3 - Document Checklist (IMM5612) item #12

Now, this is the tricky part wherein you need to compare the job description of your occupation, that was written at your COE, with the occupation at the NOC 2011.

Let's take Equipment Engineer as our sample occupation .  This job title is totally out of the NOC 2011 list, but we can find a code for this and it takes time and effort.

Given that the following details were written at the COE:

Equipment EngineerAugust 2010 - August 2014

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Write equipment handling specifications, technical reports, capacity computations, maintenance manual specifications, and maintenance schedules.
• Conduct design reviews, inspection, and evaluates the performance equipment.
• Troubleshoot machine using technical software.
• Read and interpret electrical diagram.
• Responsible for the layout preparation, scheduling, mobilization and installation of machines for production use.

We will visit the NOC 2011 Website and select the Classification structure menu (see photo below).  Then choose the classification that you think has the greatest similarity with the Equipment Engineering job and its corresponding responsibilities. 

So, we will choose #7 (see the photo and click to visit the site)

The Skill Type 7 will have a long list of occupational codes.  Scan through each occupation and find the closest match, and that is NOC 7242 (Industrial Electrician) with responsibilities that are similar with that of an Equipment Engineer.

7242 Industrial ElectriciansIndustrial electricians install, maintain, test, troubleshoot and repair industrial electrical equipment and associated electrical and electronic controls

Now, we can therefore state that the equivalent NOC of Equipment Engineer is NOC 7242 Industrial Electrician.

How to Fill Up the Form with the NOC Code?
Alright, we have now the NOC equivalent code.  Go to the application form IMM008 Schedule 3 Economic Classes - Federal Skilled Worker, item #12 - Work Experience

If you have another occupation and declared as your Primary, e.g. NOC 2241- Electrical and electronics Engineering Technologists and Technician , it should be in included in the 50 eligible occupations and meet the criteria for FSW Canada. 

Since NOC 7242 is a Skill Level B occupation, we can include this in the Work Experience.  Even though it has more than 4 years of experience, we can not make it as the primary because it's not included in the 50 eligible occupations list.

Take a look at the table below.

The space provided for the Main Duties is always not enough, you can write "Please refer to attached page" and create a document in A4 paper with the complete details of the duties.  Include it in this form as attachment.

Other Related Post:
Years of Work Experience, How to Compute?
Certificate of Employment or Letter of Reference for FSW Canada Concerns


Hope that this this post will help in your application. If you like this post or appreciate the author, please tick the LIKE button below.

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If you have any questions regarding this post, you can leave a comment below or email me at benalagnam@yahoo.com.

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