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Immigrants’ Views

Immigrants’ Views. BC Internationally Trained Professionals Network http://bcitp.net/downloads/site2/BCITPNET_Surrey_summary.pdf Look at what they perceive to be the barriers to the right employment:. Poor info in home country: “misleading” Not the right Canadian experience

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Immigrants’ Views

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  1. Immigrants’ Views • BC Internationally Trained Professionals Network • http://bcitp.net/downloads/site2/BCITPNET_Surrey_summary.pdf • Look at what they perceive to be the barriers to the right employment:

  2. Poor info in home country: “misleading” Not the right Canadian experience Perception that credentials were “fake” English and communications Costs Time, income Discrimination References not recognized Long wait periods Changing requirements Poor feedback Immigrants’ Views

  3. Pathways 1: Regulated Professions : CSMLS • Issues include time, costs and fees, complexity • How much cost should the profession itself bear? • Link language assessment to the profession • Link to colleges and universities for bridging programs and PT studies • Liability? • http://www.csmls.org

  4. Pathways 1: Regulated Professions: U of T Pharmacists • Pharm Ed, June 2003, Vol3(2) pp87-96 • 50% of those licensed in ON are ITI’s • Go beyond credential-based evaluation and paper exams and portfolios • PLA is more holistic and robust for skill trades where “knowledge in action” is the key.

  5. Pathways 1: Regulated Professions : U of T Pharmacists • Developed a direct assessment, competency based PLA program • Identified competency standards, developed the model, designed test stations, then measured competencies against the standards. • “Communicative competency formed an overarching superordinate category for assessment”

  6. Pathways 1: Regulated Professions : U of T Pharmacists • Logistics and costs were daunting ($1800 per candidate) • Inadequacy of TOEFL: need “pharmacy-specific linguistic, communicative and cultural competency assessment...” • Quickly identified gaps in procedural knowledge expected in a Canadian pharmacy • (B.C. process: 1,000 hours needed in Canadian/US setting).

  7. Pathways 1: Regulated Professions • Solution: build networks to help each other • Citizens who immigrated must help the newcomers along: give them experience, allow them to volunteer • Lobby for a minimum wage while they are going through the process • Professional specific ESL, plus bridging programs

  8. Pathways 2: non-regulated professions: Tourism • Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council: a national sector council: http://www.cthrc.ca • Uses a comprehensive system of competencies based on occupational standards, and common benchmarks to assess skills and abilities: http://www.emerit.ca • Model for other sectors?

  9. Recognizing the Best What employers expect, need, and look for... Knowledge Experience Performance K E P Multiple-choice exam

  10. Recognizing the Best What employers expect, need, and look for... Knowledge Experience Performance 30% K E P = Multiple-choice exam Evidence of practical experience

  11. Recognizing the Best What employers expect, need, and look for... Knowledge Experience Performance K E P TCP TCS TCM = Multiple-choice exam Evidence of relevant experience Practical assessment of performance

  12. Pathways 2: non-regulated professions: Tourism • Needs to map onto the educational system: we need a national credit transfer system among colleges to link with the employer driven system • Skills gaps: how do you handle the gaps? Colleges vary in how they can handle the gaps and provide PT learning.

  13. Pathways 2: non-regulated professions: Tourism • For immigrants we then add the language and cultural issues • CTHRC has a successful bridging program: Read-to-Work to support immigrants • Mis-match of skills levels required by immigration and those needed by the industry

  14. Pathways 3: Community Colleges Colleges are particularly well placed to help ITI • They are focused on education that leads to work • They often have strong ESL offerings • They do PLAR • They have strong links with many other community agencies: settlement agencies, governments, other providers etc. • So, they are positioned to play a central role…

  15. Big Issue: ITIs are people • Complex • Unique • Have diverse backgrounds and experiences • Have diverse needs • Each has the ability to succeed and prosper • Each has the right to try

  16. Colleges are not…… We are not organized around a “whole student” of any sort: • Program/ESL/Admissions/PLAR/Registration/Financial Aid/Counseling are all separate • Externally, 3 levels of government/ occupational and regulatory bodies/employers/advocates/settlement agencies • Each ITI needs a unique integration of a multitude of units

  17. Examples? • Not easy to find examples , even in colleges, of where immigrants have received recognition for experiential learning • VCC: Provincial Instructor Diploma

  18. Provincial Instructor Diploma • Each PID course has a description of the elements that a person has to submit as proof of equivalent competency: he/she submits documents that give evidence that they have, for example, developed a curriculum or actual teaching tools and instruments as evidence that they have the skill sets that are provided in the course.

  19. Provincial Instructor Diploma • But, few come with their course materials, and corroboration is needed to of the documents and tools that are submitted. • Many such educators enjoy taking the courses because they provide a window into the culture of education here; and they are not overly concerned about getting recognition for their past experience. Instead, they enjoy the comparisons our courses provide into what and how they did the job in their homelands.

  20. GOLETA program at UNL • http://www.ulster.ac.uk/lll/researchcentre/publications/pdf/apel_and_ll.pdf Section 2.3: Helen Peters • Portfolio building for APEL • An 8 week program for those with higher level English levels • Obtain a Certificate in PD

  21. GOLETA program at UNL • Personal development and Communication sessions • Weekly portfolio building sessions • Group interaction very important • Each participant considered all aspects of their lives: skills, abilities and knowledge gained • Principle benefit was self confidence and self knowledge, and “the ability to analyze and describe gains form experience”

  22. GOLETA program at UNL • This article is a good source of discussion about the challenges of the portfolio process for the immigrant • Role of the tutor/counsellor is crucial • Integration of theory/practice and personal experience is hard: the process of deriving the learning is as valuable as the learning itself: both parts should be valued formally in the portfolio process

  23. Contact Alan Davis VP Education Vancouver Community College adavis@vcc.ca

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