CIUSSS offers second-language training to JHSB staff
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Amid sweeping cuts to subsidized French language-learning programs offered by school boards and service centres in the Quebec City region, organizations serving the local English-speaking community are placing their hopes in workplace-based programs that allow employees to develop their second language during work hours.
“I think at this point, strategies by employers for language acquisition in the workplace are probably our best bet, as well as initiatives such as [a one-on-one language-learning mentorship program] to try and mitigate these losses,” Brigitte Wellens, executive director of Voice of English-speaking Québec told attendees at a regional round table hosted by the Provincial Employment Round Table (PERT) late last year.
A partnership between Jeffery Hale–Saint Brigid’s (JHSB) and a McGill University program may be part of the solution. About a dozen francophone and anglophone JHSB employees, in management, administrative and pa- tient care roles, have been quietly improving their second- language skills with online courses since 2020.
The program is offered to “any employee of the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale who would like to improve their practice of the English language in the context of their work” and whose job is on a long list of eligible positions, CIUSSS spokesperson Mariane Lajoie told the QCT. French-as- a-second-language courses are also offered through the same program.
“These are language classes – French or English – tailored to health professions [and] to staff who interact with the public,” explained Nancy Boulanger, manager responsible for the living environment at Saint Brigid’s Home. The online group courses are vol- untary, free and offered by the CIUSSS outside of work hours. Current employees can contact their manager or department head if they’d like to sign up for courses in either language. “It’s probably not that well known, so there’s a lot of word of mouth,” said Boulanger.
JHSB is the only designated bilingual hospital and long- term care centre in the Quebec City region; consequently, employees in most public- facing positions must have a baseline level of both English and French. “Since we want employees who speak English, sometimes we hire people who don’t speak French, but we’re not a 100 per cent English- speaking centre either, so they have to get by in French for various reasons,” Boulanger said. “There’s a minimal level of bilingualism required for user safety.”
JHSB also hires some health professionals, such as nurses, who have moved to Quebec from out of province and must pass a French exam to continue to practice.
“They have a licence from the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec, but with restricted rights because they must pass a French exam … [It’s] beneficial for us to support them in their progress in French because they already have the element that is difficult for us as employers to get, which is English,” Boulanger explained.
Other employees sign up to keep their second language skills sharp, she said. “For those who learned English as a second language, it’s a golden opportunity to keep your skills up.”