For some students, studying abroad for a few years is enough in terms of new experiences for them and after graduation, they head back home and take up work in their country of origin.

Other students however, may choose to stay and pursue work abroad as they’ve become use to the way of life and find that there are more opportunities. In Canada, you can practically explore any subject area you want. The only challenge may be competition in saturated areas where there are more graduates than jobs.

If you like the idea of studying and working in Canada, then it’s worth knowing which industries are thriving. This will give you some good insight into which subjects could potentially lead to employment upon graduation.

The Canadian Occupational Projection System identified jobs that are expected to have the strongest projected employment growth between 2013-2022. From this we can identify degree programmes that will give you the best chance of getting a job within these sectors.

Top 10 occupations with projected employment growth

• Specialist physicians
• General practitioners and family physicians
• Database analysts and data administrators
• Professional occupations in business services to management
• Head nurses and supervisors
• Electricians (except industrial and power system)
• Other technical occupations in therapy and assessment
• Information systems and data processing managers
• Underground production and development miners
• Physiotherapists

Interestingly, five of these occupations lie in the health care sector, which as the COPS suggests, ‘reflects that the population is aging and with this, the need for healthcare professionals and healthcare related occupations will increase.’

So, what subjects should you study if you want to work in these areas?

Biological Sciences and Medicine

In some cases, you will need a bachelor of science degree or if you’re studying in Quebec, you will need to complete a college program and one year of pre-medicine university studies.

Following that students will need to graduate from an approved medical school and complete examinations in their speciality.

These subjects can set you up for a career as a general practitioner or specialist physician.

Physiotherapy

If your interests lie within the healthcare sector, another subject that can get you a job within a thriving occupation is physiotherapy. In addition to a degree in this field, a period of supervised practical training is required.

Nursing

An aging population will mean more nurses are needed within the healthcare sector. University programmes in nursing is the perfect way to get your foot in the door, whether that’s an approved registered nursing or registered psychiatric nursing programme. Upon graduation, students will need to register with a regulatory body. This is required in all provinces and territories.

Computer Science

Away from the healthcare sector, IT related jobs are projected to grow between 2013-2022. This makes a computer science degree a valuable investment. This can lead to various positions within data administration and information systems. Other positions you can pursue with this includes software development management and data centre management.

Business Administration

You may not want to run your own business, but rather provide professional services to management. This could be as a business management consultant, ISO consultant or organisational analyst. At times, a graduate degree in business administration may be required and for some establishments, they’ll expect candidates to gain certification by a provincial management consulting association.

Though degrees are not necessarily needed for jobs such as electricians and underground production and development miners, secondary school experience is required. Programmes in these fields are usually made up of apprenticeships and formal/specialised training. However, it may be worth checking with specific companies that you’re interested in working for.

Now that you know which areas are set to grow in the coming years, why not start your search and get ahead of the crowd?