Stacey had held a few different jobs in the past 20 years, but none of these lasted more than three years. She has had to depend on social assistance most of the time. She had worked for a cleaning company, at a small grocery store in Chinatown, and in a hotel laundry facility. She worked for cash at the grocery store and said the experience was "more like hell."

They treat me like, they use too much. No lunch. No break. Just tell you to do something. Just do it. You do one job…you not done yet and they just tell you, 'Pick up that bag of rice to bring to the customer.' Big bag of rice and I cannot do it, you know. I do it slow. Sometimes he told me to go and pick up the order food at the restaurant and I waiting and they not done yet. Then I come back and I do the same job, and they say, 'Why you do this all day. Why you do so long?' You feel like, oh this job, I don't need it. It was cash, you know, $5.00 an hour. Criminal people work like [that]—no lunch, no break.

It was work and literacy experiences like Stacey's that the employment preparation program hoped to address, although when the program began she was no longer enrolled. She was called by the program to register, but waited another year to actually enroll.

Rouda

Rouda is a recently divorced single mother of six children. Before her divorce she had been separated for a number of years and had been raising the children on her own. She was 36 years old during the study, and had immigrated to Canada from Somalia in 1992. She became a Canadian Citizen, and like Marion and Hannah, had attended ESL classes when she first arrived in Canada but quit after a few months to care for her children. Rouda went to school until she was 10 years old in her native Somalia, but was forced to leave due to the civil conflict. After her youngest child was in daycare, Rouda returned to school and registered in the general literacy program. The ESL program was no longer suitable for her because she had gained strong oral abilities after six years in Canada. Like Stacey and Nadine, Rouda didn't talk about past educational experiences. Even in her adult years, no one encouraged her to attend school. In fact, she was discouraged by her former husband who thought she should be at home with their children full–time.