National Initiatives

ELT funded projects fiscal year 2003/04

Projects (By Province-Territory)

Alberta

[*] Calgary YWCA

To provide an additional intake of 22 skilled immigrants in the Canadian Employment Skills Program – a 20 week fulltime program providing training in English language skills, cross-cultural communication skills, and soft skills necessary for immigrants to obtain and maintain employment in the Canadian workplace. This is a 20-week program, which provides six weeks of classroom training and a 10-week unpaid work experience placement. Clients, who do not have paid employment after the work experience, receive four weeks of job search assistance. This is followed by six months of job maintenance and support with a client check-in at 90 days and 180 days.

[*] Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers

Developing Integrated Programming for Immigrant Professionals - The Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers will refine and develop the methodology and processes successfully employed in its Engineers’ and Technologists’ Integrated Program (ETIP) so that the resulting (conceptual) model may be applied to the development of integrated bridging programs for internationally trained practitioners in other professions such as Accountants & Auditors.

British Columbia

[*] Business Council of BC

Engaging Employers to Examine Labour Market Attachment for Skilled Immigrants - To engage employers from across BC to identify attitudes and practices that positively affect the labour market attachment of skilled immigrants, and develop recommendations to enhance labour market attachment efforts.

[*] Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society

Skilled Immigrants as Community Assets – To support the conceptualization or development of strategic integrated bridging services for skilled immigrants in the Nanaimo area.

[*] Chilliwack Community Services

Bridge to Your Future – To develop specific tools: an employment readiness assessment; an employment and program assistance matrix and a “Passport to Work” that summarizes the immigrant’s personal employment goals.

[*] Community Futures Development Corp of Greater Trail

Immigration Promotion, Recruitment and Relocation in Rural BC: Lower Columbia Immigration Pilot – To develop and document an integrated immigration and bridging approach that successfully addresses barriers to labour market attachment of skilled immigrants and business immigrants intending to immigrate to rural BC and those already in the country.

[*] Community Futures Development Corp. of North Fraser

Credentialing and Employment of Skilled Immigrant Workers in the Fraser Valley Regional District – To develop alliances and partnerships (educators, immigrants, and employers) that will assist immigrants with professional training.

[*] FuturEd

Benchmarking of Bridging Programs for Skilled Immigrants in BC – To assist in the future evaluation of bridging programs for skilled immigrants by benchmarking existing bridging programs found in B.C. and across Canada and creating an evaluation framework based on these benchmarks.

[*] Hecate Strait Employment Society

Northwest Immigrant Skills and Services Project – To provide a skills inventory of landed immigrants, identify relevant support agencies and service providers to assist in labour market attachment, and identify employers seeking matching skills within the North coast communities of Prince Rupert, Port Edward, Masset, Queen Charlotte City, Skidegate, Tlell and surrounding First Nations communities of Metlakatla, Port Simpson, Hartley Bay and Kitkatla area.

[*] Immigrant Services Society of BC

Promising Practices in Workplace Practice Opportunities – To describe the role that workplace practice opportunities play in the full range of training, educating and employing skilled immigrants.

[*] Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria

Skilled Immigrants and Labour Market Access in the Capital Region – To conduct a needs assessment, environmental scan, and facilitated strategic planning process involving a broad range of stakeholders to build regional capacity to address the labour market integration of skilled immigrants in the Capital Region District.

[*] MOSAIC

Inventory of Assessment Tools for Skilled Immigrants – To inventory and analyze the delivery of existing assessment tools used within the Lower Mainland to assess skilled immigrants in the following areas: English language proficiency, essential skills, academic qualifications, technical skills, employability skills.

[*] Possibility Concepts

Enhancing the Labour Market Attachment of Skilled Immigrants within the Okanagan – To complete an environmental scan of career assessment and planning services and integrated bridging services for skilled immigrants, support the conceptualization and development of resources, to assess the capacity of existing resources, and to develop a series of recommendations that will inform future labour market attachment initiatives within the region.

[*] School District #41

Comprehensive Assessment and Career Planning Services of BC’s Skilled Immigrants – To research and identify models and best practices of career assessment and planning services and develop a comprehensive career assessment and planning model that can be incorporated in whole or in part by the multiple stakeholders working with skilled immigrants.

[*] School District #41

Resources to Provide Direct Labour Market Information to BC’s Skilled Immigrants – To develop a listing of professional and trade associations to support the flow of essential information to the skilled immigrant job seeker and to develop recommendations to assist professional and trade associations to develop services specifically designed for the skilled immigrant.

[*] SUCCESS

Towards an Integrated Assessment and Bridging Program in BC’s Construction Industry - To develop a comprehensive strategic plan to increase the employment of skilled immigrants among construction contractors.

[*] YMCA of Greater Vancouver

An Employer Survey of the Under-Employment of Skilled Immigrants – To identify skills and attributes required by a variety of employers to facilitate the labour market entry of skilled immigrants.

[*] YMCA of Greater Vancouver

A Survey of Skilled Immigrants with Long-Term Attachment to the Labour Market – To identify the skills, attributes, and course of action taken by skilled immigrants who have overcome employment and language-related barriers and established long-term labour market attachment.

Manitoba

[*] Brandon University

EAP Deliver English for academic purposes, CLB levels 7-8.

[*] English for Engineers

Develop and deliver an ESL program (CLB 6-7) which integrates situations and vocabulary needed in the engineering profession.

[*] English for Specific Purposes

Investigate the needs in Winkler, Brandon, Steinbach and Winnipeg for ESP programming (initial requests for ESP has been accountants and hog barn and meat packing workers). Design path to employment with other stakeholders.

[*] English for Teachers

Develop and deliver an ESL program (CLB 7-8) which integrates situations and vocabulary needed in the teaching profession for 15 people. Benchmark the second language teachers who are performing successfully in their field. Develop an on-line teaching and support network for 10 teachers who cannot access the regular training because of distance or time constraints.

[*] English for Truck Drivers

Develop and deliver an ESP program that integrates situations and vocabulary needed in the truck driving profession and focuses on language needed to pass written test for licensing. Delivery sites: Winkler, Steinbach and Winnipeg.

[*] Fatima Soares and Associates

Employment Solutions for Immigrant Youth. CLB levels 5-10.

[*] Health Care

Develop and deliver an ESP program (CLB 6-7) which integrates situations and vocabulary needed in the health care profession.

[*] Online Tutorials

Develop and deliver on-line ESL guidance and instruction. Establish support network for learners.

[*] RRC Main St. Winnipeg

Intensive ESL classes (CLB 5-8) for 30 immigrant learners.

[*] RRC Main Street, Winnipeg

Immigrants seeking College and University entrance. CLB 7+ for 30 immigrant learners.

[*] RRC Steinbach Campus
Deliver RRC’s intensive ESL program (CLB 5-10) for 40 immigrant learners in Steinbach.

[*] RRC Winkler Campus

Deliver RRC’s intensive ESL program (CLB 5-10) for 40 immigrant learners in Winkler.

[*] The Pas Friendship Centre

Develop and deliver an ESL program (CLB 1-5) to meet the needs of learners living in The Pas and vicinity.

Nova Scotia

[*] Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre

Integration of International Nurses Committee into ELT project: This partnership of professional, regulatory and immigrant settlement stakeholders is designing an integrated process that will support international nurses to navigate the steps toward nursing employment and settlement in Nova Scotia.

Health Care Sector Language Pathway Stream Proposal Summary: The Health Care Sector Language Pathway Stream of this proposal will consist in the first year - 03/04 of an environmental scan research project to collect data on health care sector needs/gaps in the province and to examine resources, programs and best practices.

Ontario

[*] Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks - CELBAN

To provide a nationally-available tool that can help internationally educated nurses to get a general indication of their language readiness to take the Canadian English Language Benchmarks Assessment for Nurses (CELBAN) test to prove their ability to communicate at the level required by the provincial nursing regulators.

[*] Centre for Language Training and Assessment

CLTA in partnership with CCLB will begin the first phase to develop a self-administered online English/French language assessment for CLB 1-10. The project will include development of CLB- based test specifications for online testing.

[*] Michener Institute of Applied Sciences

To develop a standardized job-specific language assessment tool that will accurately determine the CLB level of internationally trained health technologists and therapists.

[*] Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care

To develop and test a comprehensive nursing-specific language curriculum.

[**] Graybridge-Malkam (Ottawa Police Services partnership)

To analyse the Ottawa Police Service recruitment needs, create assessment tools covering the four language competencies and develop curriculum guidelines for the policing career.

[**] Inter-Cultural Neighbourhood Social Services

To develop a curriculum for customer service, entrepreneurship or managing a small business, administrative and clerical assistants, and environmental careers.

Yukon (CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENT)

[*] Yukon College

This project will help 10 immigrants overcome language barriers, understand Canadian labour practice, explore avenues for credential recognition, and to obtain, where possible, an extended work placement opportunity in each participant’s area of expertise.

National

[**] Canadian Labour and Business Centre (Ontario)

To provide a national picture of the needs, challenges and concerns of business, labour and sector councils regarding job-specific language training. Handbook: Immigration, Labour Market Language and Skills Shortage: to increase awareness of the role of immigration in meeting future human resources challenges.

[**] Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks – NAC (Ontario)

Multi-Stakeholder Review Committee - to provide advice and opinions on proposals for the Enhanced Language Training initiative.

[**] Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks – Research (Ontario)

To carry out national research that will have a direct impact on the success of the development and delivery of ELT projects.

[*] For information pertaining to specific projects, please contact the following respective governments:

Yukon:

Brent Slobodin
Advanced Education Branch
Department of Education
1000 Lewes Blvd
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 3H9

British Columbia:

Collin Mercer
Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services
3rd floor, 590 West 8th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1C5

Alberta:

Barbara Leung
Director, Community Programs
Alberta Learning
8th floor, 10155-102 Street
Edmonton, AB T5J 4L5

Manitoba:

Margaret Pidlaski
Adult Language Training Branch
Manitoba Labour and Immigration
213 Notre Dame Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 1N3

Ontario:

Peggy Frederikse
Access to Professions and Trades Unit
Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
900 Bay Street
Toronto, ON M7A 1L2

Nova Scotia:

Jean Smyth
Adult Education Division
Nova Scotia Department of Education
4th floor, 2021 Brunswick Street
Halifax, NS B3J 2S9

[**] For information pertaining to these projects, please contact:

Stephanie Peck
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Jean Edmonds Tower North, 5th floor
300 Slater Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 1L