Calgary embraces new economic initiatives to adapt a global workforce

Until recently, Calgary has relied primarily upon energy production to drive the local economy. But the global economy never rests. Digital developments such as “transfer vs. shipping” and global resource access via internet, continue to change the business landscape. The digital world empowers customers, nearly everywhere to steer their own choices. As lower energy prices and other global economic changes are projected to impact “energy producers”, Calgary is adapting. New thinking is part of Calgary’s response, which includes an economic initiative encouraging the development of new business that drives both direct and indirect employment in Calgary. In fact, this initiative embraces the digital world, and the digital world is global and multilingual. So it is important to think of Translation Services in Calgary as a driver for the economy.

Calgary Residents

With a current population of over 1.2 Million, Calgary, in Alberta Canada, is a region that experiences the highest rate of net migration in the nation. And although immigration from one province to another is in the negatives, international migration to Calgary was over 21,000 in 2016. Professional translation services are performed for employers in languages such as Tagalog, Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish as immigrants arrive seeking employment, housing and entertainment.

Immigration to Calgary is expected to continue

Currently, immigrants comprise nearly 30% of the Calgary population. As we focus on those numbers, let’s also keep in mind the variety of languages spoken in Calgary, based on Calgary’s 2016 metropolitan census.

It reports a population of 1,381,345 and English as the mother tongue for 67.8 per cent of inhabitants. French-speakers make up 1.5 per cent with 20,715 people. Immigrant languages make up 30.7 per cent or 383,320. The top three immigrant languages in Calgary are Tagalog (Pilipino; Filipino), Punjabi (Panjabi), Cantonese, Mandarin, and Spanish (at 8,685 or 2.1 per cent of Calgary’s population). This influx of immigration and the diversity of languages require translation services to adapt to the new composition of Calgary’s population.

Labor Force

Calgary’s labor force is comprised of over 32% women and minority immigrants. And as the their population continues to increase, those arriving from international locations bring with them their own talents, needs, family and languages. While some employment includes higher technology and degreed employees, others are part of manufacturing and assembly workforce. In this segment, those non-English and non-French speaking residents become part of Calgary’s business and social fabric, so multilingual documents and interpretation services are tools to work with a global workforce.

Focus on Employee Training

Because employees are also consumers in any region, focusing on appropriate career training helps to solidify both their income (boosting consumerism) and their employer (by preparing a workforce). Translation for video training, document translation and simple employment form translation, are all expectable steps in this process of becoming a contributing member of the community.

Full Circle

By extending the offer or greater training through the use of professional translation services, this in-bound labor force can find a local culture that ready to embrace their needs. It will be interesting to see the experiences that a business and cultural center like Calgary produces as this new initiative translates innovation into growth.