The Community Outreach Department of George Brown College acts as a liaison between the chairperson of the Technology Department at George Brown and the Immigrant Women's Job Placement Centre. For the first intake, the College provided technical training courses, 1 to 1 tutorials and a course in English for a Specific Purpose. The Centre provided courses in life skills and will be providing English courses in the future. Women who went through the first program felt they needed more basic skills and more English so this is being changed for the second intake in October 1987. Women who are accepted into the program must have the equivalent to grade 12 math and sciences or a strong technical background and also have the equivalent to grade 10 English. The program has 15 places and lasts 36 weeks. The program works on an individual basis, but the trainees also get the advantages of working through the curriculum with a supportive group. When the women have graduated they are still able to return to the Immigrant Women's Job Placement Centre for any further support or services that they need.

It is still too early to assess the success of the program. However, in a country where we have immigrants with doctorates who are delivering pizza because their qualifications are not recognized in Canada, the program appears to offer a hopeful alternative for immigrant women who have had previous training and experience in their home countries. The involvement of the Immigrant Women's Job Placement Centre is a particularly critical element because of the Center's ability to provide ongoing follow-up assistance to women after they have completed the program.

4.3.4 A New Role for Community Colleges:

Community colleges across the country are bearing the brunt of changes in funding levels which are occurring as a result of privatization policies. Those colleges that survive will be those which carve out a new role for themselves, in partnership with the voluntary and private sectors. For most colleges, this more proactive approach to the development and support of educational programs is difficult to envision. The Community Outreach Department of George Brown College has developed one approach to finding this 'new role'.

The Community Outreach Department was initiated in October 1985 as a response to shrinking funding sources and out of a renewed commitment to serving the needs of disadvantaged adults and youths in Metro Toronto. Its goals are to promote the development of community-based training programs affiliated with the college, and to expand and diversify college services to the community at large.

The department operates by working with designated 'community affiliates'. The department is responsible for negotiating all contracts with non-profit agencies under the Canadian Jobs Strategy and other similar funding sources. In one year the number of affiliated programs grew from 5 to 30 with another 8 programs awaiting funding. More than 450 full-time and 1,050 part-time students are now enrolled in the community affiliates, of which two-thirds are targeted at women. The three staff members function as a liaison between interested non-profit agencies and the appropriate college departments and provide a number of services to the community affiliates, including initial consultation and needs assessment vis-a-vis joint training programs, fund-raising and proposal-writing assistance, testing of student applicants and provision of instructors on or off-campus. The Department also conducts research into new areas of need which the college should be meeting, provides training for trainers, publishes a newsletter, and participates in community development and lobbying and advocacy. College services are billed to affiliates on a fee-for-service basis.

The Department still faces many challenges. In particular, in the interface between community and college programs lie differing standards, salary levels, teaching methods, staff qualifications and a host of potential conflicts over accreditation, control, and program evaluation. Our research has shown however, that these problems will have to be overcome, not only by George Brown, but by any college wishing to remain active and relevant. Governments have not been responding to concerns about the privatization of funding for training. We found no indication that this trend is likely to reverse itself in the near future, although it may slow, if a strong case can be made for a 'special role' for public and voluntary sector organizations.