ACCAC unveils new work experience program for immigrants

Journal Photo by Lanny Stewart

Assiniboine Community College Adult Collegiate coordinator Roger Loewen speaks about the new training program for immigrants at a press conference last week.

The Assiniboine Community College Adult Collegiate has launched a new program with hopes of generating more jobs for immigrants who continue to make their way to Brandon.

In partnership with Vanguard, Westoba and Crocus Credit Unions, the ACCAC is offering the Credit Union Immigrant Member Services Representative Training Program, which began last Monday.

The 17-week program will offer financial services training to Canadian immigrants specific to credit union employment. The program includes five weeks of classroom training, plus 12 weeks of paid on-the-job training. Nine students were selected for the inaugural program and coordinator Roger Loewen says a selection process was done to determine who would take the course.

“This is kind of like a bridging program,” said Loewen. “Each individual has the skills. We provide them with some additional English and we introduce them to the Canadian banking industry and life in a Credit Union.

“Some of them have a lot of experience in working in the banking industry. I was blown away at how many skills they brought with them from their home country.”

Loewen says the ACCAC runs other EAL (English as Additional Lang-uage) programs but was convinced this was one area in which there are a number of people coming in with this kind of skill set.

He says ACCAC initiated the talks with the Credit Union branches and knew immediately everybody was on board with the idea.

“They have a lot of cliental,” said Loewen. “For example they have Chinese clients, they have Korean clients where sometimes people behind the counter may have difficulty communicating. For a Credit Union to have a Chinese or Korean representative behind the counter would be very helpful.”

“I think it's a great opportunity and a great idea to have a program like this,” said Friesen, the instructor of the program. “I think the opportunity is that the five weeks that we're giving them here gets them prepared for the terminology, the English, some of the cultural things.”

Although there is no guarantee of employment upon completion of the program, Loewen anticipates there will be job openings in the near future.

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