Adults
Telephone help lines
Telephone response
Day by day, the Foundation’s help line operators hear touching accounts from individuals who have trouble reading and writing or are looking for training.
The Foundation would like to share some responses with you that will give you a better idea of what our operators’ work involves. In guiding users to the appropriate resources while taking their geographical location and family and occupational situation into account, they are helping encourage people in the steps they take, and thus facilitating their access to learning services.
In Mai 2010…
An Info-Alpha line operator answered Juan Ino’s questions about the literacy training services offered in Quebec to all adults. Despite a strong Spanish accent, Mr Ino clearly expressed his questions concerning the literacy courses offered and the procedure for registering. Once he had passed on all the information to Mr Ino, the operator asked whether the literacy courses were for someone close to him or for himself. The young man then told the operator how he managed to decode some words and function in society without ever having gone to school. With a very low level of literacy, Mr Ino immigrated to Canada three years ago from Mexico. On arriving in Quebec, he learned French by himself, and quickly found a job in the hotel industry. Since then, Juan Ino has integrated well into his workplace, and his colleagues, who had noticed his weak reading and writing skills, brought up the question of literacy training. He then confided to them that he was illiterate, and that he wanted to learn to read and write.
With support from his employer and workmates, Juan Ino called the Info-Alpha line and learned about the different organizations and schools near where he lives. He will be able to register in literacy training without worrying about losing his job, and he will even enjoy moral support from his colleagues.
In April 2010…
Kate MacDonald telephoned the Info-Alpha line to find out more about going back to school. Having lost her job as a patient care aide, she now uses her Employment Insurance benefits to house and feed her two sons, aged 11 and 15. She could not keep her job in health services because she has no diploma of any kind. Ms MacDonald could never stand school, and does not like reading. As a result, she could never encourage her sons in their schooling. Today, she wants to know whether she can pick up and complete her high school education. Ms MacDonald tells us she has two good reasons for doing so: first, to set a good example for her sons and inspire them to stay in school; and second, to earn a diploma that will bring her steady employment.
Ms MacDonald’s approach to our help line operators reveals her awareness of parents’ influence on how their children do at school. Her two boys appear to be well on the way to dropping out of school, and Ms MacDonald hopes to reverse the situation by showing them the importance and value of education. Her goals are to earn a diploma of vocational studies in the health care field and to acquire, along with her sons, a willingness and motivation to learn.
In March 2010…
Diane Bayou called us after taking her daughter to school. She explained that she has been working in food services for more than a year, but because she does not have a diploma yet, her work conditions are often the same: not very attractive, and uncertain. Since she is replacing a waitress, her boss recently told her she could no longer continue working for him. Ms Bayou has almost completed her francization classes at the Ministry of Immigration, but had to interrupt them to work and look after her young daughter. Now that her little one has just started elementary school, Ms Bayou has more time to go back to her training. The referral line operators explained to her how to set about taking an equivalence test to determine her level of schooling as well as the procedure for having her experience in food services recognized, all with a view to obtaining a diploma of vocational studies in food services.
In February 2010…
Mr Laroche has been driving trucks for nearly 20 years. An advertising banner on a city bus caught his eye, and prompted him to call the referral line operators to tell them about his son. Like many parents, what he wants for his son is a steady, well-paid job that would help him in his turn to build himself a life. But the 22-year-old has still not completed high school, and the father is concerned about his son’s future. The operators are very familiar with the conditions for admission to vocational training courses, and can give Mr Laroche several examples of courses adults can get into without a high school diploma. So his son could register in vocational training while at the same time taking the general education credits he is missing for his high school diploma.
Mr Laroche is really surprised at how open the school system is in allowing young people like his son to earn their high school diploma and a diploma of vocational education in less than two years. Encouraged by this opportunity, Mr Laroche tells our operators he can’t wait to talk to his son about it, and to tell him about the different vocational training courses available to him.
In December 2009…
Estelle calls the Foundation’s Info-Alpha line after meeting an employee at a Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi (youth employment and integration centre, or CJE) in the Laurentians. She told us she has often been “between jobs” and has always got by. Estelle is currently on an internship in a reintegration organization, but that will be ending soon. With the help of the CJE worker, she may have found a new job, but to increase her chances she decides to take upgrading classes in written French. Since she has a 4-year-old girl to look after, Estelle believes she won’t be able to register for any training.
The phone-line operators tell Estelle that some resources also place a drop-in centre at their learners’ disposal. So she will be able to take classes during the day while her daughter goes to the daycare centre downstairs!
Estelle’s enthusiasm at the idea of increasing her chances of getting this new job in reception seems to be growing. In closing the conversation, the help-line operators stress how important it is for her to take the classes she needs to make up to obtain her high school diploma, so as to avoid being “between two jobs” so often.
In november 2009…
From La Sarre, not far from Rouyn-Noranda, Lise telephones the Info-Alpha line about literacy training courses for her husband. After 10 years working in the forestry sector, Lise’s husband has just been laid off for good. He will not be able to find a new job unless he upgrades his reading and writing skills. Lise wants to help her husband, but never finished high school herself and is having trouble finding work. Although they are young, they both feel to be far from school.
We directed Lise’s husband to an organization located near Rouyn-Noranda that works on vocational rehabilitation of forestry workers. With that organization’s help, he will be able to take literacy training classes and receive job search support. To Lise, the Info-Alpha line operators presented the different possible routes: going back to secondary studies at the Adult Education centre near her, or taking a high school equivalence test or a general development test so she could be admitted to vocational training or to a specialized trade apprenticeship program. All these approaches represented opportunities for Lise to have her skills recognized and facilitate her job search.
Lise was not familiar with the resources in her region or the services available for the couple to receive the kind of help they need. After talking to the Info-Alpha line operators, Lise now sees opportunities for her and her husband to succeed.
In October 2009…
Ms Potvin of Quebec City has three young children and would really like to be able to read with them at home. Indeed, she has long wished to improve her reading proficiency, but says she has neither the time nor the money or patience to go back to school.
The Info-Alpha line operator told her she can be put in touch with a volunteer tutor who would go to her home once or twice a week. In fact, some community organizations in Quebec have set up tutoring programs backed by literacy trainers who go to people’s houses. Also, Ms Potvin was directed to a Famille grassroots organization in her neighbourhood which organizes parent-child reading activities in which she and her family could take part.
Ms Potvin is very happy to see new opportunities opening up for her, and does not dismiss the idea of participating in a literacy training class to upgrade her skills, as the operator suggested.
In September 2009 …
A Foundation operator received a call from Paul, aged 42, from the Montérégie, who was seeking help because, in his words, he was “lettered.” In fact, many people with low reading proficiency have trouble saying “illiterate,” a complex word.
In overcoming his embarrassment and nervousness about confiding his situation, Paul asked the operator how he could go to school to learn how to read and write. He took the time to mention that he had previously tried to register at an adult education centre a year earlier, but classes were full so there was no room for him.
He had been discouraged, and put his plans for studying on the backburner.
It was only a year later, when a friend gave him the number of the Info-Alpha line, which she had found in an employment office, that he felt like going back to school again and plucked up his courage to do so.
After listening carefully to the advice from our operator, who explained clearly to him where to go and who to talk to, Paul appears to have stacked the cards in his favour by registering with a literacy training group, where he will be starting his learning process.
* In order to respect the privacy of the individuals mentioned here, their names been changed.