Canada is an amazing country and it’s especially great for international students who are looking to get a head start on their path to success. On the downside of things, the living and college costs are quite expensive in Canada and this makes it difficult for international students to move. Fortunately, here is where the Global Affairs Canada foundation comes in and saves the day. Global Affairs Canada is offering short-term scholarships to mid-career professionals that are coming from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The scholarship program is aiming to reduce the level of poverty in ASEAN countries and to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The way that the scholarship program is hoping to achieve this goal is by providing opportunities or professional development through short-term courses that are taught in Canada.
Canada-ASEAN Scholarships for Mid-Career Professionals: Benefits
The question that everyone must be asking right now is what are the benefits of this scholarship program? The benefits of the scholarship program depend on the duration. Check the list below to see what you can get:
- Up to CAD 10,000 for the cost of the program/course;
- Up to CAD 5,000 for flight, visa, health insurance; and,
- Up to CAD 1,600 weekly allowance for living expenses.
Eligible expenses
The Canadian Government Scholarship will contribute towards the following costs:
- program/course fee;
- visa and/or study/work permit fees;
- economy airfare, for the scholarship recipient only, to Canada by the most direct and economical route and return airfare upon completion of the scholarship;
- health insurance;
- modest living expenses, such as accommodation, utilities and food; and,
- ground transportation expenses.
Canada-ASEAN Scholarships for Mid-Career Professionals: Criteria
As previously mentioned, the first criteria that the scholarship program asks is for applicants to be mid-career professionals. The supported fields are academia, civil society, the private sector (the focus is on small business), the public sector (this includes parastatals, state-owned enterprises, ministries, judicial and legislative bodies).
A mid-career professional needs to meet the following criteria in order to be considered the ideal application for the scholarship program:
- has worked for at least 5 and up to 20 years;
- is in a managerial, policy development or in a decision-making position OR is a mid-career academic in a post-secondary academic institution, research institution, or think tank;
- has at least two years of experience within the position; and,
- is not supervising more than 30 employees and/or a CAD 30 million budget per year.
To be eligible:
- Candidates must be citizens of an ASEAN member state and must be currently working in an ASEAN member state;
- Candidates from Brunei and Singapore must demonstrate how they would use the learning in Canada to help combat poverty in one of the other eight ASEAN countries;
- Candidates must fulfill the requirements of the Canadian institution including academic requirements and language proficiency; and,
- Candidates who have obtained Canadian citizenship or who have applied for permanent residency in Canada are not eligible.
Official Letter and Deadline
The short-term courses are held in Canada and they will start in 2020. We are advising all interested students to access the official website where they can find out additional information. Furthermore, the deadline for the applications is 6 February 2020.