Lack of jobs forces CBU student to travel more than three hours for classes

Mahavir Jadeja is an international student at Cape Breton University, who travels 300 kilometers almost every day to attend classes in Sydney, N.S.

“I tried in nearby cities and then I got a job in Truro, so I moved to Truro for that,” he said.

Several stores in the Sydney area have signs posted in their windows telling people there are no openings.

Jadeja says after two months of searching for work his only option was to move to the mainland.

“My class is in the morning at 9 o'clock, so I need to take a ride around 5 o'clock in the morning,” he added.

At the Hallmark store in Sydney's Mayflower Mall, manager Tasha Myers has a stack of resumes from students looking for work.

She says it’s hard having to turn so many away.

“I've been told by multiple students that they're promised the world. They're promised a job, a good place to live, opportunities galore, and that's obviously not the case,” said Myers.

Nova Scotia's minister of advanced education, Brian Wong says his government has committed $5 million dollars into the Tartan Downs project to create new student housing.

He says universities need to give appropriate information when recruiting, but says it's also on the students to do their research, especially international students before coming to Canada.

“I do know for example that Cape Breton University has been training their recruiters to ensure that the proper information and honest information is given to students. We don't need recruiters to mislead students to come to Nova Scotia,” said Wong.

He was also asked about possibly limiting the number of international students a school can have. He said universities are independent and it’s up to each school and its business plan to decide how many students is the right amount.

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