Ontario Immigrants receive help with language skills

In Ontario, Canada, eleven organisations will receive financial assistance so that approximately 1,800 international employees can improve their language expertise.

Canada's government will come up with funds of $7.8 million (Canadian dollars), while the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration is expected to fund up to Canadian $3.4 million. This will go to Toronto agencies offering services to immigrants.

Some of the settlement services provided by these agencies include language training, mentoring, internships, and just helping immigrants find jobs. The financial assistance will be primarily catered to services that support for internationally trained employees. The workers will be representing specific work areas like engineering, finance, architecture, and health care.

Eleven different organisations, including universities, will carry out 12 language-training programs and these employment programs will be co-funded by the Canadian government and Ontario's department of immigration.

The institutions and agencies receiving the financial assistance include the University of Toronto, and the CARE Centre for Internationally Educated Nurses. The CARE centre's objective is to deal with teaching language skills, specifically for the needs of those who are nurses. Meanwhile, the University of Toronto is slated to embark on a program that will aid immigrants in acquiring expertise in the area of project management.

Minister of Immigration, Diane Finley was quoted as saying in published reports that learning English or any new language is a significant challenge for those immigrants who come to Canada. She added that the organisations that are funded by the immigration department collaborate with skilled professionals to fulfill the language requirements that are needed to effectively compete in Canada's work force.