Absolutely. Thank you.
Yes, as I said, the Canadian immigration integration project has now been launched in four countries. It actually also covers 25 other countries through satellite and itinerant services, so that's quite a bit. Through that it covers about 75% of the federal skilled worker program and about 44% of provincial nominees. So that's quite a chunk of skilled immigrants and their families who are getting this information.
As I said, they go to an orientation session about what it's like to live and work in Canada. But we also provide more details. We bring in partners like Royal Bank and CIBC, who talk about what it means to work in the financial industry in Canada. And people, as I said, will get one-on-one counselling services and will find out that it's not easy, that they do have to go through a lot of steps, that they have to be proactive and that they do have to network. They're taught about resumés and doing interviews, and about how bridge-to-work programs could help. And then, as I mentioned, they are linked in Canada to a service where they can find out more information about some of those programs, such as bridging-to-work and getting the Canadian experience as soon as they land.
There was an evaluation done of the project when I was at HRSDC and we found that it was quite successful—which is why we made it a program. We found that people who find work within the first year have much better long-term economic outcomes. We found that 93% found work within the first year, which is very high, and a great portion of those also found work within their field—again, because they were prepared.
The immigrants themselves, when they were interviewed, said that it was an absolutely essential service. They said they felt very well prepared, that they knew the steps, they knew it was going to be tough, and actually knew what was coming. So their expectations were tempered, which was great. We also found through surveys that Canada's reputation as a place to actually come to was much improved through this program.