National Initiatives

ELT Communiqué

February 2004 The Enhanced Language Training Information Update

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.

ELT projects include development and delivery activities that will provide:

• language training at Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) levels 7–10;
• job-specific language training; and
• language training at CLB levels 1–10 in some small centres.

Note: Please refer to the December 2003 issue for more information.

2003–04 Funded Research and Development Projects

Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks

Pauline McNaughton (613) 230-7729

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

Canadian Labour and Business Centre

Brigid Hayes (613) 234-0505, ext. 246

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.

Graybridge-Malkam Cross-Cultural Training

Laraine Kaminsky (613) 761-7440

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

Andrea Seepersaud (905) 273-4884, ext. 205

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

Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care

Dawn Sheppard (416) 406-6166, ext. 24

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

The Michener Institute of Applied Science

Cecil Canteenwalla (416) 596-3154

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

Federal-Provincial-Territorial Partnerships

CIC Integration Branch is having discussions with some provinces regarding partnership agreements for the development and delivery of projects for 2003–04.

ELT Workshop

An ELT workshop was held in Toronto on January 12, 2004. It was a great opportunity for the 115 participants to discuss the ELT strategy, expected outcomes and funded projects for fiscal 2003–04.

Another ELT workshop is tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2004.

2004–05 Call for Proposals

A call for development and delivery projects was posted at integration-net.ca and http://www.settlement.org. The revised deadline for submissions is March 19, 2004.

The 2004–05 projects are expected to begin in June 2004.

Upcoming Activities

A working group on funded projects is currently being organized. The purpose of the group is to share best practices and lessons learned, and to move the initiative forward. The group is expected to meet quarterly.

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