> Immigrant teachers flock to SFU program
Immigrant teachers flock to SFU program
Contact:
Kanwal Neel, 778.782.8125, 778.228.9677, kneel@sfu.ca
Rajdeep Boparai, rajdeepboparai@hotmail.com, rkb8@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Kanwal Neel, 778.782.8125, 778.228.9677, kneel@sfu.ca
Rajdeep Boparai, rajdeepboparai@hotmail.com, rkb8@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
February 19, 2008
For the first time immigrant teachers can attend an information session in downtown Vancouver about a highly successful, one-of-a-kind program aimed at making them more employable as teachers in British Columbia.
An information session at SFU Surrey about the faculty of education’s Professional Qualification Program (PQP) recently attracted 80 potential applicants. Program coordinator Kanwal Neel says the sessions, normally held in Surrey and Burnaby, are being offered for the first time at SFU Vancouver’s Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings Street) to better reach the downtown core’s growing immigrant communities. The upcoming session takes place from 7 to 9 pm Tuesday, February 19 in room 7000.
PQP, a 10-month, 36-credit program (enrolment every January) includes a 13-week practicum that helps immigrant teachers to adapt to B.C.’s student-centered rather than teacher-centred education approach. Enrolment in the annual program, which was established in 2001, has gone from 12 to 24 students. Truly international in its student makeup, the program draws immigrant teachers from Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.
SFU’s PQP is the only teacher-upgrading program catering to immigrant teachers in B.C. They get practical B.C. classroom experience, a prerequisite for the B.C. College of Teachers’ approval to teach in the province’s public school system.
Last year the program started offering accent-reduction classes, which attracts many immigrant teachers who often wind up working outside of their profession or only in independent schools when they come to B.C.
“PQP students get language training but many want more help with reducing their accents so that they are more easily understood, especially by their students,” says Neel. “About two thirds of our students are immigrant teachers who are working outside of their profession because they didn’t realize that they don’t have to redo five years of university training. They were also unaware of the need for practical teaching experience in B.C. classrooms to be eligible to teach in public schools.”
Neel has numerous examples of immigrant teachers who’ve left jobs beneath their skills and become gainfully employed teachers in B.C.’s public school system after completing SFU’s PQP. Upon graduation last December, Surrey resident Rajdeep Boparai, an immigrant teacher who wasn’t able to work in her profession after moving here from India a few years ago, received three job offers. She now teachers grades 9 to 11 math full-time at a Surrey high school.
For more information on enrolment contact France Verret, Special Program Advisor at 778.782.8128 or verret@sfu.ca.
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An information session at SFU Surrey about the faculty of education’s Professional Qualification Program (PQP) recently attracted 80 potential applicants. Program coordinator Kanwal Neel says the sessions, normally held in Surrey and Burnaby, are being offered for the first time at SFU Vancouver’s Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings Street) to better reach the downtown core’s growing immigrant communities. The upcoming session takes place from 7 to 9 pm Tuesday, February 19 in room 7000.
PQP, a 10-month, 36-credit program (enrolment every January) includes a 13-week practicum that helps immigrant teachers to adapt to B.C.’s student-centered rather than teacher-centred education approach. Enrolment in the annual program, which was established in 2001, has gone from 12 to 24 students. Truly international in its student makeup, the program draws immigrant teachers from Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.
SFU’s PQP is the only teacher-upgrading program catering to immigrant teachers in B.C. They get practical B.C. classroom experience, a prerequisite for the B.C. College of Teachers’ approval to teach in the province’s public school system.
Last year the program started offering accent-reduction classes, which attracts many immigrant teachers who often wind up working outside of their profession or only in independent schools when they come to B.C.
“PQP students get language training but many want more help with reducing their accents so that they are more easily understood, especially by their students,” says Neel. “About two thirds of our students are immigrant teachers who are working outside of their profession because they didn’t realize that they don’t have to redo five years of university training. They were also unaware of the need for practical teaching experience in B.C. classrooms to be eligible to teach in public schools.”
Neel has numerous examples of immigrant teachers who’ve left jobs beneath their skills and become gainfully employed teachers in B.C.’s public school system after completing SFU’s PQP. Upon graduation last December, Surrey resident Rajdeep Boparai, an immigrant teacher who wasn’t able to work in her profession after moving here from India a few years ago, received three job offers. She now teachers grades 9 to 11 math full-time at a Surrey high school.
For more information on enrolment contact France Verret, Special Program Advisor at 778.782.8128 or verret@sfu.ca.
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