Liu,J., Cansu, E. D., Campana, M. Coordinated by AMSSA. Funded by IRCC. April 2021.
This report looks at the Settlement sector’s needs in the area of digital services, as a whole. COVID-19 resulted in the sector having to move to fully digital and remote service. The themes included in the report were identified through consultation within the sector and beyond from October 2020 though March 2021. The report makes a number of ambitious recommendations to IRCC using a “Now, Next, Later” framework. One of the examples of these is particularly relevant for language training as follows:
Next:
● There is also a need for consistent and ongoing training for staff, not only focused on how best they can use technology, but also how to train clients to use it in a service context.
● The sector and IRCC should develop guidelines on how to develop and implement digital literacy tools to assess clients’ digital skills. This guidance should include the provision of training materials, tools, and recommendations for agencies to support clients’ digital literacy skills.
Later:
● The sector and IRCC should develop a digital literacy competence framework conducive to the needs of the immigrant settlement sector.
● Consider a Digital Literacy Benchmark (DLB) as a complement to Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) to allow for Service Providing Organizations (SPOs) to quickly and accurately assess the digital literacy levels of newcomers to guide and support them accordingly.
Retrievable from:
https://km4s.ca/wp-content/uploads/EN-Settlement-Sector-Technology-Task-Group-final-report-and-recommendations-2021.pdf
In the section of the report on Change Management Tools & Practice, there are four tools listed that organizations can use to identify strengths and services, including The European Framework for Educators’ Digital Competence (DigCompEdu).
Retrievable from:
Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) | EU Science Hub (europa.eu)