Now that fall’s upon us, it’s a great time to recap our busy summer. From moving to a brand new office, travelling to Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, and releasing more than 20 reports, the past few months have been anything but idle!  

We kicked off summer with the release of two reports on French-Second-Language Learning. These reports delve into the status and availability of French-language workforce programs (FLWPs) as well as the types of support available to English speakers who work in professions regulated by professional orders. Through these studies, we were able to gain important insight into how linguistic minorities access these types of skills training opportunities, and how these programs can be improved and made more accessible.

• French-Language Support For Québec’s English-Speaking Professionals 
• Inventory Report: French Language Training For The Workforce in Québec

More recently, we followed up on last year’s Québec-wide tour with the release of our 17 regional Employment Profiles. These reports help highlight the unique set of challenges and opportunities facing English speakers in Québec’s labour market. 

This summer, we also developed an explanatory brief on Bill 96’s impact on employment. This adds to the work we did this winter in proposing recommendations to the parliamentary commission studying the Bill.

We also got to work building and strengthening our partnerships with important stakeholders. We travelled to les Îles-de-la-Madeleine to meet with our partners at CAMI (Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders). This trip helped us deepen our understanding of the unique employment circumstances our community partners contend with on a regular basis. 

Most recently, we had the opportunity to participate in the 2022 Cross-Canada Official Language Consultations hosted by the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor. This provided a great opportunity to contribute to the conversation about the future strategic plan for official languages and advance the priorities of our stakeholders in employment. Our Executive Director Nicholas Salter even had the chance to represent PERT at one of the panels during the closing summit. 

Finally, we transitioned from remote work to our brand new office where our team is now brainstorming, planning, and getting ready for all of the exciting milestones that we hope to achieve over the coming year! 

As we continue to plan our future research, we look forward to presenting our current work during our “Putting Language to Work Conference” taking place this November 16 -17. We are excited to continue the discussion on the employment and employability challenges facing the English-speaking community, to identify solutions, and to work collaboratively with stakeholders to implement them. 

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