National Initiatives

ELT Communiqué

December 2003 The Enhanced Language Training Information Update

Background

Canada will rely more and more on immigration as a major source of population and labour force growth as our population ages and as the labour force begins to decline.

Immigration currently accounts for more than 70% of the net growth in the Canadian labour force. It is expected to account for all net labour force growth within the next 10 years and for all population growth within the next 25 years.

It is therefore critical that Canada make effective use of the talent and skills of immigrants. In order to do so, there is a need to ensure that the right supports are in place.

The average immigrant has a higher education level than the average Canadian born in Canada, but some do not have the language skills in either English or French to be able to use their skills optimally. Increasing the current levels of language training would help realize the human capital gained through immigration.

Enhanced Language Training

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) was allocated $25 million over five years for the development and delivery of labour market levels of language training outside of Quebec. The initiative included job-specific language training.

CIC will enter into cost-sharing or seed-funding partnerships with stakeholders, including provinces, territories, service provider organizations, NGOs, employers, sector councils and learning institutions. The partnerships could include other federal departments.

ELT projects will include development and delivery activities that will

• Provide language training at Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) levels 7–10 to help immigrants who arrive in Canada with basic or intermediate English or French skills, but who require higher levels of language proficiency;
• Provide job-specific language training to enable immigrants to find and retain employment commensurate with their qualifications and skills; and
• Provide language training at CLB levels 1–10 in some small centres to help support immigrant settlement outside of Canada’s large urban centres. Small centres are defined as cities other than Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax.

Development Projects

CIC invites partnerships that focus on the development activities that will support the delivery of labour market levels of language training, including the following:

• assessment tests;
• language surveys;
• on-line language assessment;
• outcomes tests;
• curriculum guidelines, including job-specific curriculum guidelines; and
• research.

Delivery Projects

CIC is seeking partnerships to deliver ELT services to clients, as follows:

• Deliver language training at CLB levels 7–10;
• Deliver job-specific language training;
• Deliver language training at CLB levels 1–10 in some small centres;
• Conduct language assessments;
• Provide child minding and transportation to enable clients to access the language training; and
• Implement on-line language training.

Eligible Clients

Immigrants and refugees who are eligible for CIC-funded Enhanced Language Training services are

• Permanent residents, Convention refugees and protected persons; and
• Individuals granted a temporary resident permit to facilitate their early admission to Canada.

NOTE: Live-in Caregivers are not eligible to participate in this initiative.

Project Criteria

Development and delivery projects must meet the same criteria:

• Projects must include a feasible cost-sharing and partnership plan to contribute at least 50% of costs (in the form of funds, in-kind contributions, services, tools or facilities);
• Consideration will be given only to proposals with expected outcomes that can be transferred to or utilized in other provinces and territories;
• Lessons learned, best practices and a detailed report documenting the development, implementation and evaluation activities must be shared with all stakeholders; and
• Projects must have a data collection and evaluation plan and must be developed in a manner that allows CIC to conduct sound evaluations, including follow-up with immigrants, to assess their labour market outcomes.

In addition, to yield the desired labour market outcomes, language training alone may not be enough. Therefore, delivery projects must also include the following:

• Internships or temporary or permanent work placement in the immigrant’s field of expertise to enable orientation in the work environment; and
• Mentoring or networking to enable skilled immigrants to meet people in their field of intended employment and to develop connections in that field.

Federal-Provincial-Territorial Partnerships

The British Columbia, Yukon, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia governments will coordinate and manage the proposals process within their respective province or territory.

ervice provider organizations, NGOs and other stakeholders in these jurisdictions must submit proposals to their provincial or territorial government.

These jurisdictions will submit the project proposals to CIC for funding consideration.

Proposal Assessments

A stakeholder committee is being established to assess and make recommendations to CIC regarding project proposals.

CIC has asked the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks to establish the proposals review committee.

The committee will include representatives of appropriate provincial, territorial and federal governments, service provider organizations, NGOs, employers, sector councils, learning institutions and other stakeholders.

2003–04 Projects Being Negotiated

A small number of research, development and delivery projects will be undertaken in 2003–04.

Two requests for proposals were issued in November 2003 for development and research activities.

The 2003–04 projects will be announced in January 2004.

Upcoming Activities

ELT Workshop

(January 12, 2004) – A stakeholder workshop will be held in Toronto. This is an opportunity for stakeholders, including federal, provincial and territorial governments, service provider organizations, NGOs, employers, learning institutions, sector councils and others, to discuss the ELT strategy, expected outcomes and projects.

2004–05 Call for Proposals

A call for development and delivery projects will be issued shortly. The call for proposals will be posted at integration-net.ca and http://www.settlement.org.

ELT Communiqué is produced by the Special Initiatives and Outreach Division of the Integration Branch, CIC. For further information on the Enhanced Language Training initiative, please contact elt-clna@cic.gc.ca, or visit http://integration-net.ca