Meeting Minutes
Employment, Education and Training Action Group
Tuesday November 6th, 2012, 9:30-11:30am
ACCES Employment, 2100 Markham road, Scarborough, ON
Members in Attendance:
Abdulhamid Hathiyani, Toronto Employment & Social Services; Zehra Kizilbash, Poylcultural Immigrant &
Community Services; Phil Richards, Career Foundation; Jorge Silvestri, Mennonite New Life Centre; Layla
Harrison, TEQ LIP; Peter Lau, Toronto Employment & Social Services; Ella Neverson, VPI; Ping Gu, TEQ
Immigrant Council
Regrets:
Dawna Rowlson, Toronto Public Library; Karen Evans, TDSB Adult ESL; Saima Malik, YMCA Newcomer
Settlement; Sam Dong, YMCA; Patrick Hearn, VPI; Neelu Nagi, TESS; Raj Bhan, YWCA Toronto; Peter
Dudka, Polycultural Immigrant & Community Services; Radha Soni, Goodwill Employment Services;
Bilijana Bruce, Centennial College; Ruma Diwanji, TEQ Immigrant Council; Nansheen Khan, VPI;
Mahalakshmi Samiappan, TEQ Immigrant Council; Liana Karakhanyan, TEQ Immigrant Council; Tracy
Sheridan, Toronto Public Health; Margaret Brimpong, Action for Neighbourhood Change-Dorest Park;
Marthe Gosselin, Francophone Immigration Network System; Amal Mirghani, PCPI; Helenna Huang,
ACCES Employment; Hanna Cabaj, TCDSB; Pooja Chaudhary, TDSB; Tracy Wu, CICS; Ghatool Maiwand,
Afghan Women’s Organization; Trish Coles, Centennial College; Cristina Graida, Next-Steps Employment
Centre;
AGENDA
1.
Welcome and Introductions
The Action Group members introduced themselves and gave some gave program updates during the introductions
TESS gave an update on the success of the Accessibility Fair that was held at the
Scarborough Civic Centre on Oct 2 nd . The a.m. session was with employers and the p.m. session was the job fair for individuals with disabilities. 300 job seekers and 20 employers attended the TESS and TDSB partnered event.
ILEN is working on hosting a forum for businesses to bring help bring businesses together to form a network in KGO/Orton Park.
Next-Steps Employment is having a Job Fair on Thursday October 25 at their site. Employers are hiring for customer service representatives to work from home, health care providers
(palliative) and restaurant servers and supervisors

PICS – Their JSW program begins on Oct 22 nd and they still have spots available. The program accepts newcomers that are permanent residents, live in caregivers and conventional refugees
ACCES Employment will send out their Scarborough office workshop calendar to the group.
TCDSB spoke in details about CLARS (coordinate language assessment & referral system)
Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration have launched a pilot project to test the benefits of a harmonized approach to language assessment and referral for newcomers. Called the Coordinated Language
Assessment and Referral System (CLARS), the pilot offers “one-stop” language assessment in centres serving London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Kingston and Belleville.
Currently, both CIC and the Province of Ontario have separate language assessment processes, and offer different language courses for newcomers with differing eligibility criteria. The pilot will test whether CLARS has significant benefits by offering:
 Standardized language testing and benchmarks;
 Ability to refer newcomers to the language training that best meets their needs – regardless of whether the course is funded by the federal or provincial government.
CIC and the Province of Ontario currently fund a diverse suite of language programs for newcomers, including: Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC); Enhanced
Language Training; Bridge-to-Work and Occupation-Specific Language Training; English as a
Second Language (ESL); and Specialized Language Training. Certified assessors at the pilot
CLARS centres will refer newcomers to the language course that best meets the particular needs of each client. They will also have the ability to refer newcomers to orientation, mentoring and other CIC-funded settlement programs.
Another goal of the pilot is to test whether a coordinated approach to language assessment has the potential to reduce administration costs
Mennonite New Life Centre has Citizen Classes and no evening classes.
TDSB will be having Nutritional Cooking classes with child minding available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5pm at their Newcomer Centre in Malvern
2.
Approval of minutes and meeting agenda

Approved by Phil Richards
3.
TEQ LIP Updates
Updates that were given:
 TEQ LIP Community Summit is scheduled for November 22 from 4-7pm at the mid-
Scarborough HUB. More details will be available soon.

4.
Employment, Education and Training Plan: Putting the Final Pieces to the Puzzle

Action group members were divided into three groups, and each group chose one activity from the matrix to be implemented in the short-term, while using images to depict their interpretation of the activity. Using a visioning exercise, members were asked to identify critical steps and timelines towards achieving the activity, identify benchmarks, identify partners and the target audience of the activity, and indicate which steps they could provide expertise and support on. The three activities chosen were:
Activity #1 (The group decided to combine the below four activities into one because one strongly compliments the other. The activity will be a Diversity Week)

Employer Awareness and advocacy on benefits of hiring newcomers

Identify and promote more highly skilled volunteering, placement and mentorship opportunities for newcomer adults and advocate for expansion of professional mentorship and funding for paid placement opportunities

Facilitate information sharing on employment-related newcomer needs, available services and labour market trends among service providers which will promote collaboration among employment and settlement service providers to enhance seamless support to newcomers in selecting employment pathways

Connect with employment related networks to advance newcomers access to employment
(i.e. ILLMP, Scar. Job Developers Network, City LIP initiatives on employment) and bring together Scarborough employment service providers across funders to explore areas for advocacy
Activity #2

Identify and create an inventory of existing programs and services for small business start up
Activity #3

Support development of a referral system for frontline staff to guide newcomer clients on education upgrades and career development
5. Debrief and Discussion

After each break-out group completed the exercise, the activity was presented to the larger group for discussion.
6. Wrap up and way forward

Next meeting: Tuesday November 6th, 2:30-4:30pm, ACCES Employment, located at 2100
Ellesmere Road, Suite #250, Scarborough, ON M1H 3B7