Education/training

ELT: The language of success

A small office in the back of a small business complex in the town of Oakville, Ont., is home to a group of people doing big things for newly arrived immigrants to the Halton Region.

NICHOLAS DAVIS
[ 2005-12-07 ]

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From left: Joanna Matthews, managing director of HMC; Al Shanghavi, ELT program co-ordinator at HMC; Enid Jorsling, ELT instructor at HMC; Susan Crawford, youth host co-ordinator, job search facilitator at HMC.

The Halton Multicultural Council (HMC) has been around since 1979 providing settlement services and English training to many new immigrants who have chosen to settle in Oakville, Milton and Burlington. Since then, the operation has grown to provide many services for newcomers including the federal government's newly implemented Enhanced Language Training program (ELT).

23 PROJECTS


The ELT program is one of the main components of the federal government's Internationally Trained Workers Initiative. The program came to fruition after the government found that a lack of technical language and workplace communication skills created barriers for foreign-trained professionals. In 2003, the government announced $20 million in funding for the ELT initiative and funded 23 ELT projects across Canada, including HMC.

"Besides helping new immigrants get settled and teaching them how to speak English, one of our main goals is to find these people work," says Al Shanghavi, ELT program co-ordinator for the HMC.

"The ELT program takes language training to the next level, helping immigrants in need get the language skills required to be successful in the workforce."


Staff at the HMC often see immigrants with a great deal of foreign work experience in a variety of fields struggle to find work here. Enid Jorsling, an instructor at HMC, says this leads many newcomers to disregard their past skills.

"The problem for a lot of foreign-trained professionals is that their work experience has always been undervalued," Jorsling says. "Since they can't find jobs in their field, many of them focus on starting over new here and that takes time."

One of the barriers preventing them from finding work in their field is lack of Canadian work experience. This is where the eight-week ELT program helps. Students spend the first six weeks in the classroom for four hours a day, four days a week, learning the language skills they're going to need in the workforce. During the last two weeks of the program, participants are placed in jobs related to their work experience abroad.

The challenge of finding job placements for participants is the responsibility of HMC's Youth Host co-ordinator Susan Crawford. She volunteered for the job when the ELT funding they received didn't cover the position of job search facilitator.

JOB PLACEMENTS


"After participants went through the program we felt it was unfair to leave them to find their own placements," Crawford says.

Through the ELT program, HMC provides training for people in office management and education fields. Crawford worked in her spare time finding job placements for people in the ELT program and says at first it wasn't easy.

"It's tough because people are sometimes close-minded regarding new immigrants, especially those with perceived language barriers and cultural barriers," Crawford says. "We have to convince people of the value of the work experience these people have to offer. For many of them, the work they did in their old country far surpasses what they need to do the jobs we're getting them."

HMC has been successful in finding placements for all the participants in their ELT program, some of them have even been offered full-time jobs once the placements ended. And those who don't get work immediately are not abandoned. HMC provides on-going job-related support for all program participants.

Shanghavi believes ELT is a step in the right direction. He admits the program isn't perfect, but after talking with participants and their families, he hopes the government will keep funding the ELT initiative.

"The program is a godsend as far as I'm concerned," Shanghavi says.

"It provides those with good skills an opportunity to get valuable Canadian work experience."

Jorsling feels ELT offers even more than that. "A lot of immigrants leave their backgrounds, their lifestyles and their culture when they come here. And when they can't get work they lose their self confidence. This program gives them hope to find opportunities to match their education, experiences and goals. It gives them back their self confidence."



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