WHO: Skills for Change

www.skillsforchange.org

WHAT: A non-profit agency that provides learning and training opportunities for immigrants and refugees so that they can participate in the workplace and the wider community.

WHERE: Toronto

WHEN: Since 1983

WHY: A group of ESL teachers decided there was a need to do more than just improve the language skills of immigrant women. And so they got a provincial grant to provide the hard training, specifically office skills, that would lead to employment.

HOW: Over the years, SfC broadened its horizons to include not just immigrant women but all immigrants and refugees. The organization’s developed what it calls a “sector specific” approach to program delivery.  Which means, for example, the content for engineers is different from the content for medical professionals but the approach is the same.  The idea is to help people navigate the system. “If they have gaps in their professional education, then we would refer them to the appropriate place that would provide that,” Executive Director Jane Cullingworth explains. “For the most part, the programs have really focused on orienting people to the workplace, to the profession and, most importantly, trying to connect them with employers.”

VISION: “We see ourselves very much as a bridge to create those partnerships to introduce employers to immigrants and immigrants to employers,” Cullingworth says. “Because that is, to so many people, the key barrier: the lack of Canadian work experience and an inability to effectively connect with employers.”

BRAVO: For the past 15 years the organization has presented its New Pioneer Awards. Again this year, on March 22, SfC recognizes six individuals in various areas for their outstanding contribution to society. [See this month’s ETC]

STATS: The staff at SfC is a living, breathing example of diversity at work: 75% are immigrants, 52% are visible minorities, and 20% are former clients, volunteers and students. In all, a total of 23 languages are spoken at the office. Cullingworth refers to them as a “global family.”

PAYOFF: “One of our strengths is we’re not an organization of white people who are telling other people that they have to be diverse,” Cullingworth stresses. “We really do practice what we preach.”

BOTTOM LINE: “Our goal is to help navigate people through the system to get them what they need, not for people to be hanging around repeating things they already know,” says Cullingworth. “We really do see that at the end of the day, they just want to get a job.”