English stories
Program to help anglos integrate job market
le samedi 05 octobre 2019
Modifié à 12 h 56 min le 05 octobre 2019
The Chateauguay Carrefour jeunesse-emploi (CJE), the non- profit helping young jobs seekers, is launching a francisation program to help anglophones perfect their ability in French in order to more easily integrate the job market.
Simon Deschamps Translation Dan Rosenburg
As of April 4, a first cohort will be able to benefit from this new project. The initiative has been put into motion by job counsellors Amelie Lemaire and Katherine Nolin.
The organization is serving a clientele composed of about 19% anglophones. Thirty-five percent of these are considered as being far from the job market, being only slightly educated and having little work experience, the two counsellors explain.
The linguistic barrier for this clientele is a hindrance to its accession to the job market, they affirm.
‘’When we do some interview simulations with them, we notice that they do not understand very much. They are not capable of having a conversation in French. By integrating the job market, I imagine that they would not be able to respond to the demands of the employer and some work colleagues,’’ said Lemaire.
The CJE employees tested the playing field with the employers of the region in order to know if they would hire a unilingual anglophone person.
‘’The reply was yes, as long as the person is minimally capable of responding to instructions in french. We then said that maybe with a small base, our clients would be able to do this,’’ Lemaire explained.
The francization program consists of four sessions of conversation lasting an hour and a half each, in which the participants will learn the French vocabulary related to the job world. At the end of the program, the youngsters will be brought to do a simulated interview. Each cohort will be composed of 10 job seekers. The workshops will be given on Thursday afternoons. The service is offered free of charge, but requires a registration.
The Carrefour jeunesse-emploi, helps young people from 16 to 35 years old, notably in the job search, but also to ’’develop their commitment regarding their life project,’’ as indicated on the group’s website.