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convergence: canada
The Canadian Online Training Platform for Essential Skills (PCFAD): A WINNING COMBINATION FOR LEARNERS IN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE MINORITY COMMUNITIES B y Mi c h e l R o b i l l a rd / / P ro j e c t C o o rd i n a t o r , C O FA
DISTANCE TRAINING IN ONTARIO Since 1998, the Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes (COFA) has been providing in-person skills development training services through its 26 members and 42 points of service. The organization has been providing distance training and blended training delivery services (combining classroombased and distance training) since September 2011. When the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities mandated the COFA to develop a distance training program (F@D), this new way of educating learners was seen as a unique and strategic opportunity to offer an additional educational tool to Francophone adults that would bridge the digital divide. The COFA’s intended audience consists of Francophone adults with literacy, numeracy and essential skills below level 3. The COFA and its members’ objective is to enable adults to reach a higher skill level than that at the beginning of their learning jour ney, commensurate with the targeted skill, in order to help them advance to level 3 proficiency. This level is deemed necessary to cope with the demands of daily life and work in a complex society and information and knowledge-based economy. Based on their experience and expertise in using dis tance learning platforms and developing synchronous and asynchronous online training, the COFA and its members have designed a training program tailored to network practitioners and quality online training geared to the needs of learners. The andragogical approaches used and the tools developed over the years have proven to be effective because they are focused on learners and adapted to their life experiences. The distance training platform and courses help learners develop cross-disciplinary skills. If, for example, an indivi dual completes the Du français en quelques clics [available in French] course, and more specifically the module on participle agreement, they could receive some training on Antidote in the following week, where they would be asked to write a text with participles and then correct it using a software program.
Training provided on the platform therefore allows learners to use a computer to log on, take online training and use a corrector to improve the quality of their texts. This rich and diversified experience helps learners develop new literacy and computer skills.
THE EXPERIENCE IN ONTARIO AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE MINORITY COMMUNITIES In the 2018 report entitled Développement de l’alphabétisme et des compétences essentielles (DACE) dans les communautés de langue officielle en situation minoritaire (CLOSM) — Analyse des besoins [unofficial English translation: Literacy and Essential Skills (LES) Development in Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) — Needs Analysis], commissioned by the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES), author Marc L. Johnson identifies issues facing OLMCs related to training on LES development, inclu ding geographic location, economic disparities, levels of educa tion, aging population, immigration levels, lack of infrastructure and training capacity. As a solution to these issues, he suggests asymmetrical policies taking into account the needs of Francophone minorities, structured support, terms and conditions of training offerings, an inte grated andragogical approach, a pan-Canadian sharing space, and the promotion and enhancement of LES development. With this in mind and based on its own experience and the identical issues facing Ontario’s Francophone community, in 2018, the COFA recommended to the OLES to develop the Plateforme canadienne de formation à distance (PCFAD) [available in French]. This OLES-funded project aims to set up a Canadian platform for distance training in LES development in OLMCs, with partners who are interested in being part of the project. This initiative is based on the principle of lifelong learning in all spheres of life and for everyone. However, special con sideration is given to the development of a component that focuses on improving essential and generic skills related to
