ERIC Number: ED460277
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1999-Feb-20
Pages: 20
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Immigrant and Aboriginal First Languages as Prior Learning Qualifications for Formal Employment in the Business, Government and Education Sectors. NALL Working Paper.
Goldberg, Michelle P.; Corson, David
The extent to which Canadian employers recognize the informally acquired first languages of immigrants and aboriginal persons as prior learning qualifications for formal employment in the business, government, and education sectors was examined through a survey of organizations across Ontario. Personalized questionnaires were mailed to a sample of 140 Ontario organizations, as follows: 32 businesses (half randomly selected and half purposively selected); 71 colleges, universities, and school boards; and 37 municipal, provincial, and federal government agencies and psychiatric hospitals. Of the 140 questionnaires mailed out, 79 (56.4%) were returned. Although 88.6% of the organizations indicated that they would benefit from employing staff fluent in languages in addition to English or French, only 30.4% were actually actively recruiting such multilingual employees. Private organizations were more likely to recruit multilingual individuals and educational institutions were least likely to do so (52.9% and 25.7%, respectively). The methods used to evaluate potential bilingual employees' language proficiency were as follows: interviews (25.8%); employer references (18.6%); and formal qualifications and personal references (13.4%). Educational institutions used formal qualifications to assess language fluency much more often than other types of organizations did (20%, 10%, and 7.6% for academic institutions, private organizations, and public organizations, respectively). (Contains 22 references.) (MN)
Descriptors: Bilingualism, Boards of Education, Canada Natives, Colleges, Employer Attitudes, Employment Practices, Employment Qualifications, Evaluation Methods, Federal Government, Foreign Countries, Immigrants, Indigenous Populations, Language Attitudes, Language Minorities, Language Proficiency, Literature Reviews, Native Speakers, Postsecondary Education, Prior Learning, Private Sector, Psychiatric Hospitals, Public Sector, Recruitment, Secondary Education, State Agencies, Universities
For full text: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/sese/csew/nall/res/03goldberg.h tm.
Publication Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data; Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Ottawa (Ontario).
Authoring Institution: Ontario Inst. for Studies in Education, Toronto. New Approaches to Lifelong Learning.
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A