During its first year of operation NEW wants to find ways to incorporate more generic technical skill training in the program so that the women can get entry level high-tech jobs. The criteria, however, will continue to be jobs that best suit the participants, jobs that offer opportunities for advancement and jobs in secure services and businesses. Without NEW's work few of these jobs will be accessible to refugee women.

Personal contact and the employer incentive are essential to providing entrance to the labour market. But once employed, the refugee woman is not free of employment disadvantages. She will continue to struggle with language integration into the work-place and adjustment to full-time employment.

NEW programs provides an environment where women can begin to take charge of their new lives in Canada. It is designed to enable them to find and keep jobs. But unlike most other job development projects in Toronto, the program matches individual interests and capabilities to a variety of jobs.

The 26-week program is in two sections. The first is English as a second language, English for special purposes, orientation, information, life-skills and preparation for employment. In the first week group sessions allow for initial assessment, the women get to know each other and get organized. They may express their immediate needs and share remembrances of home. Initial ESL sessions provide generic grammatical structures and vocabulary from which subsequent, topic-specific language can progress.

In the third and fourth weeks the emphasis is on field trips and discussion. At meetings held once a month participants evaluate the program and their own progress. Fourteen weeks seems the minimum time required for Latin American refugee women to acquire the information, skills and self-confidence to be ready for employment. Eleven weeks are spent in work placement. Employers are encouraged to offer training that leads to full-time employment. If no job is offered the women return to the program for two weeks of active job search. Work placement is meant to provide training, marketable skills and Canadian work experience. Twelve weeks is the minimum time required. Latin American refugee women want and need to work. Without assistance, they face a future of chronic or sporadic employment in marginalized jobs.

For further information call 416-469-0196
or write to NEW, 815 Danforth Avenue,
Suite 406, Toronto, Ontario, M4J lL2.
Brochures are available in Spanish and English.

Publications WOMEN IN TRADES- TORONTO 1988 CALENDAR

Women in Trades, Toronto, is a support group for women working, or interested in working or training, in non-traditional blue-collar occupations. It also works to educate the public on relevant issues and to improve legislation in order to make equality in employment a reality. Their 1988 Calendar is available at $8.00 a copy by writing Women in Trades, 22 Davisville, Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E8, (416) 487 1776.

"FORWARD FROM NAIROBI"

Forward from Nairobi is an information resource package and workshop kit created by Status of Women Canada to facilitate the process of world- wide change recommended in the Forward Looking Strategies (FLS) developed at the Third United Nations World Conference on Women held at Nairobi, Kenya in 1985. It is a comprehensive guide containing a copy of the FLS document, relevant background information, Canadian fact sheets, step-by-step workshop outlines, audio- visual materials and handouts for workshop participants. Its aim is to develop understanding of the significance of the FLS document, to facilitate gaining access to information and resources and selecting action strategies. To borrow the Forward from Nairobi kit, contact your regional Secretary of State Department office, the address of which is available through the Women's Program, Secretary of State of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, KIA OMS.