Back in Jamaica, Taiesha Stewart-Francis worked as an operating-room nurse with training in general surgery, neurology, gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics and more. But here in Edmonton, Stewart-Francis works as a nursing attendant at the Grey Nuns hospital, where her responsibilities are limited to feeding, bathing and turning patients, changing simple dressings and helping the nurses. She cannot administer medications.

However, a $5,000 loan from the made-in-Alberta Immigrant Access Fund is about to change all that. The money will allow Stewart-Francis to enroll in courses at Mount Royal College in Calgary this January, with the aim of becoming a registered nurse by the start of 2009. 'It would be a vast difference in pay,' she said Saturday. 'We are very optimistic.'

Stewart-Francis is the ninth immigrant to receive a loan through the Edmonton branch of the program, which is administered through the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers.

The Immigrant Access Fund started in Calgary in 2005 and has been running here since August. It provides loans of up to $5,000 so immigrant professionals can upgrade their education and qualifications for certification to work in Canada.

On Saturday, the federal government announced it will contribute another $120,000 to the fund, bringing total federal funding to $520,000. The new federal money will help expand the fund's operations in Edmonton and into northern Alberta.

It gives Alberta a way to tap into hundreds of millions of dollars worth of international training that is currently wasted, said Jim Gurnett, executive director with the Mennonite centre. 'Almost every professional occupation in Alberta is in short supply of workers these days, and yet we really do have thousands of trained people in Edmonton working in low-skills jobs,' Gurnett said.

Earlier this month, the Alberta government announced it would provide $740,000 over the next three years to cover the fund's operating costs. The Immigrant Access Fund has raised more than $2 million in public and private support since 2005. The program has given loans to 76 professionals in fields such as medicine, accounting, dentistry and engineering.

So far, all the loans are being repaid as required, Gurnett noted.

'So it's not a giveaway. It's an investment, really, in these people who can start contributing in Alberta.'

By Andrea Sands

The Edmonton Journal (Canada), November 17, 2007