Foreigntrained professionals: Fasttracking ESL and Essential skills learning

1
Foreign-trained professionals Fast-tracking ESL
and Essential skills learning

• Laurel Madro
• Team Lead
• Corporate Readiness Training Program (CRTP)
• Center for Career Advancement/TOWES

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Literacy Immigrant Professionals challenges
with finding and keeping a job

• When speaking to employers, language,
  communication, accuracy and brevity in writing
  are all key concerns when hiring immigrant
  professionals whose second language is English.
  Mistakes cost money. Employers hesitate to risk.

3
Literacy Immigrant Professionals challenges
with finding and keeping a job

• Test scores are low in Reading Text, Document Use
  and Numeracy. Numeracy scores tell the tale.
  Could it be that an Engineer wouldnt have the
  basic math skills to do a task or is it that the
  instructions are misinterpreted because of
  literacy levels.

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Literacy Immigrant Professionals challenges
with finding and keeping a job

• Immigrant professionals dont realize how much
  their success is tied to their ability to find
  and use information, communicate clearly and
  accurately, and work with others in this cultural
  context.

5
How did BVC become involved?

• Bow Valley College has been offering English as a
  Second Language (ESL) for over 30 years
• Greater number of professionals were taking work
  placement programs

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How did BVC become involved?

• Alberta Employment and Immigrations Request for
  Proposals allowed the funding to create the
  program.
• The unique Alberta economy technical and growing
  allowed access and success

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Corporate Readiness Training Program

• Start date September 1999
• Objectives to help foreign trained
  professionals bridge into the Alberta Corporate
  Workplace
• 10 weeks in class, 6 weeks work placement, 6
  months follow-up support
• Location Calgary, Alberta
• Funding sources Both the Alberta and Canadian
  Governments 
• Funding amount Tuition
• for those in need, living expenses

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• Corporate Readiness Training
• Who is involved BVC, CRTP Team, Host Companies
  in Calgary, funders
• Population served Foreign Trained Professionals
  looking to enter their fields in Canada
• Curriculum Evolved and grew through collecting
  feedback from Alumni on real life challenges
  faced at work.
• Outcomes Over 90 are working in their fields 6
  months after the end of the program

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Corporate Readiness Training

• Evaluation methods Learners TOWES (Test of
  Workplace Essential Skills), TSE (Test of Spoken
  English), CBSA (Computer Based Skills
  Assessment), Classroom and Workplace performance
• Program Contract Deliverables

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Funding for Learners

• Participants can be on Employment Insurance (EI)
  or not on (EI).
• To get EI, underemployed workers can apply for a
  Counsel to Leave Employment at a Canada-Alberta
  Service Center. If approved, are eligible for EI
  support and funding. For more information follow
  this link http//employment.alberta.ca/documents
  /RRM/RRM-PUB_NCN0986.pdf

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For more information on Alberta Policy

• http//employment.alberta.ca/hre/awonline/reg/disp
  lay.asp
• Follow the above link to the Alberta Policy
  Manual for information on a variety of policies
  and listings of programs across the province.

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Putting a face to the program!
Quote from more than one CRTP learner This
isnt like any other ESL class I have ever
taken.
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Do foreign trained professionals whose
second/third/other language is English have
literacy issues that might affect their success
in the workplace?

• Long hours at work
• Errors and Mistakes
• Weaker Research Skills (vocabulary)
• Low scores on TOWES (12) when CLB were 6/7

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(No Transcript)
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Workplace Demands For Essential Skills

• Entry-level jobs that dont call for a post
  secondary education (e.g. cashier, security guard
  or labourer) require skills at a minimum of level
  2, but mostly
• level 3.

100 80 60 40 20 0
Reading Text Document Use Numeracy
level 1 level 2 level 3 level 4/5
lowest highest
Source Matching Canadians Literacy Attainment
to Actual Occupational Requirements, May 2001.
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Literacy Earnings

• About 30 of what workers earn is linked to their
  Essential Skill levels.
• No other factor including Education Work
  Experience is as significant

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• Test Of Workplace Essential Skills
• Developed in 1998 through funding from HRSDC
• Developed to address the need for an assessment
  of workplace literacy
• Valid assessment of Workplace Literacy
• Uses Authentic workplace documents to test
  proficiencies in 3 Essential Skills Reading Text
  
• Document Use
• Numeracy

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• Test takers assume the role of a worker who must
  find and use information embedded in a workplace
  document to solve a problem or complete a task
• TOWES provides a strong indication of a test
  takers skills in each of the 3 domains
• Scores are predictive

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Do IPs close these gaps faster than non academic
learners?

• Yes, because this group is academically trained
  and highly motivated. When the English literacy
  skills gaps are identified and targeted training
  delivered to the learners, Essential Skills
  levels can increase quite rapidly.
• Increased Essential Skills levels in the pre and
  post test for over 80 of CRTP participants.
• Increased awareness for the necessity to continue
  to practice and improve these skill sets.
• Increased learner confidence so the entry into
  the workplace is smoother.

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Average Pre Post TOWES Test Scores for CRTP
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Why is this important training for this target
group?

• Essential Skills (ES) are different from the
  technical skills trained in most post secondary
  institutions.
• Awareness of the necessity to further develop ES
  is the first step.

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Challenges for Training

• Awareness of Learners
• Many Immigrant Professionals do not understand
  how important all 9 Essential Skills are for them
  in the workplace
• A strong belief that the Education in technical
  field is enough. Getting learner buy-in requires
  lots of discussion.
• Competing for jobs resumes/interviews in English
  is absolutely different in North America

• Feedback from Alumni
• Small Talk was more important than I thought.
• I had to do a presentation to a client and I was
  confident to create it and present it. I think it
  went well.
• I volunteered to take on a project, I saved the
  company money they would have spent if they hired
  it out and my supervisor was very pleased.

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Challenges in Culture

• Top down management styles
• High on the socio-economic ladder, difficult to
  loose privilege
• Loss of self- esteem
• Lack of awareness of expectations of workplace

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Different Workplace Cultures

• No personal assistants, secretaries
• Necessity to do ones own correspondence, send
  own e-mails, complete documents, track
  appointments, answer phones and prepare
  presentations
• Efficiency and accuracy is expected
• Little workplace training
• Cultural goal orientation

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Building Relationships with Industry

• Industry hasnt trained supervisors to mentor
  Immigrant Professionals.
• Small/Midsized Enterprises dont have to train
  new workers.
• No time to supervise and expensive to have on
  site.
• CRTP can fill some of these roles.

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What didnt work

• A classroom environment that didnt reflect
  workplace demands Deadlines, communication and
  quality are key.
• Being subtle about work quality, communication
  and standards. Was often lost.
• Not giving constant and continuous feedback and
  assessment. This group likes to know it is
  progressing.

• Jumping into higher level skills without
  laddering up. i.e. Student lead staff meetings
  without setting up a structure and expectations.
• Grammar activities or Essential Skills activities
  not tied to the course content, need to be
  relevant.
• Fluff

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Resources

• CRTP
• www.bowvalleycollege.ca/crtp
• Classroom TOWES Activities
• http//measureup.towes.com
• Essential Skills Website
• http//srv108.services.gc.ca/english/general/home_
  e.shtml
• TOWES
• www.towes.com