French – at the Heart of Ambition at John Abbott College
In conjunction with the activities of la semaine de la francophonie, John Abbott College highlighted the grant made by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) to a project that focuses on training and integration of non-Francophone students in workplaces in Québec, particularly in high-tech sectors.
John Abbott College is the only English-language CEGEP in the province to receive such a grant from the OQLF.
Present at the roundtable event held on campus March 21, Julie Létourneau, OQLF Director of Communications, along with several members of the Abbott Career and Continuing Education programs, administrators and students, discussed major issues facing students in Career programs as they enter the workforce.
Fluency in French constitutes a major challenge for some non-Francophones, who are more likely to leave the province after their education.
The objective of the OQLF-funded project is to prepare non-Francophone (or those not perfectly bilingual) students born in Québec or from immigrant families, to integrate into Francophone workplaces. Through context-specific, activity-specific learning, the project aims to establish bilateral links, exchanges and dialogues between workplaces and graduates, as well as to overcome socio-cultural and linguistic barriers that have a deleterious effect on integration and retention.
