<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:7.265625px 14.546875px 29.09375px 0px;font-family:'PT Sans Narrow',sans-serif;font-size:2.143em;line-height:1.1">Canadian language providers rally in face of tough policy</h2><small style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 2% 0px 0px;font-family:'PT Sans Caption',sans-serif;font-size:0.625em"><span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px">Posted on </span><a href="http://thepienews.com/news/canadian-language-providers-rally-in-face-of-tough-policy/" rel="bookmark" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">Mar 13, 2015</a> <span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px">by </span><span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px"><a class="" href="http://thepienews.com/author/beckie-smith/" title="View all posts by Beckie Smith" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">Beckie Smith</a></span></small><small style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 2% 0px 0px;font-family:'PT Sans Caption',sans-serif;font-size:0.625em">Posted in <a href="http://thepienews.com/section/news/associations/" rel="category tag" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">Associations</a>, <a href="http://thepienews.com/section/news/" rel="category tag" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">News</a>, under <a href="http://thepienews.com/region/north-america/" rel="tag" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">North America</a>.<br>Tagged with <a href="http://thepienews.com/tags/canada/" rel="tag" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">Canada</a>, <a href="http://thepienews.com/tags/isp/" rel="tag" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">ISP</a>, <a href="http://thepienews.com/tags/languages-canada/" rel="tag" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">Languages Canada</a>.<br>Bookmark the <a href="http://thepienews.com/news/canadian-language-providers-rally-in-face-of-tough-policy/" title="Permalink to Canadian language providers rally in face of tough policy" rel="bookmark" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold">permalink</a>.</small><div class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px"><p style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;line-height:20px">It hasn’t been an easy year for Canadian language providers as new policies came into effect last June that abolished their rights to the study work co-op programmes, and placed more responsibility on provincial lawmakers, further fragmenting already disjointed governance of the sector. However, at the Languages Canada conference this year, providers were optimistic that with a unified front, they can compel change on a national level.</p></div><img width="500" height="375" src="http://thepienews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_0151.jpg" class="" alt="IMG_0151" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 7.296875px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; width: 730.625px;"><h6 style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:16.546875px 0px 12.40625px;font-family:'PT Sans Narrow',sans-serif;font-size:1em;line-height:0.8;float:left">Share this:</h6><ul class="" style="border:0px;padding:0px;font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;width:10em;border-radius:20px;height:27px;float:left;background:rgb(254,124,47)"><li class="" style="border:0px;margin:3.21875px 0px 2.140625px 9.6875px;padding:0px 2.140625px 0px 0px;float:left;list-style-type:none"><a title="Share this article on Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://thepienews.com/?p=50260" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;display:block;overflow:hidden;width:21px;height:21px;background:url(http://thepienews.com/wp-content/themes/THEPIE/images/social-icons-sprite.png?20141212) 0px -21px no-repeat">Share on Facebook</a></li><li class="" style="border:0px;margin:3.21875px 0px 2.140625px;padding:0px 2.140625px 0px 0px;float:left;list-style-type:none"><a title="Share this article on LinkedIn" rel="socials" href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://thepienews.com/?p=50260&title=Canadian%20language%20providers%20rally%20in%20face%20of%20tough%20policy&source=The%20PIE%20News" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153);text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;display:block;overflow:hidden;width:21px;height:21px;background:url(http://thepienews.com/wp-content/themes/THEPIE/images/social-icons-spr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ernational Student Program brought in last year have hit the sector hard.</p><div id="attachment_50294" class="" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:16px;border:0px;margin:0px 23.25px 0px 0px;padding:0px;float:left;width:322px"><a href="http://thepienews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/suegonzalo.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(68,68,68);text-decoration:none"><img class="" src="http://thepienews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/suegonzalo.jpg" alt="Sue Blundell, ED of English Australia spoke with Languages Canada CEO Gonzalo Peralta and offered advice to Canadian providers" width="312" height="207" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto;"></a><p class="" style="border:0px;padding:0px;font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.6em;line-height:20px">Sue Blundell, ED of English Australia spoke with Languages Canada CEO Gonzalo Peralta and offered advice to Canadian providers</p></div><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“We calculated 15% of our numbers came from that programme. Some of that, of course, can be regained through other programmes, which may have increased a little bit, but there’s no doubt that it had a very significant impact on the sector.”</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">However, the sector has come together in the face of the changes, and the divide between public and private providers is shrinking, he added.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">Around a third of the association’s 227 members are in the public sector.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“There’s some very practical things like collaboration between the two in projects, initiatives and partnerships,” Peralta commented.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“And there are things that have really united them, like initially it was thought for example that language core programmes… were more of a private sector [issue], but what we’re discovering now is that it also takes the public sector.”</p><blockquote style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:16px;border:0px;margin:1em 10px;padding:0px 9.296875px 0px 0px;float:right;width:232.609375px"><p style="border-width:2px 0px 0px;border-top-style:solid;border-top-color:rgb(254,124,47);margin:0px;padding:0.5em 4.640625px 9.296875px 0px;font-family:'PT Serif',serif;font-size:1.286em;line-height:1.2;text-align:right">“Internally the sector has never been more cohesive and united”</p></blockquote><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">The organisation is even looking externally for lessons to be learned from Australia in improving the ELT sector, as executive director of English Australia, Sue Blundell, was a prominent figure at the Ottawa conference.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“I think the example that is set by Australia is when things go wrong you have to move into action, and that’s what Australia did,” Peralta said.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“They took excellent data and used it to lobby the government and influence a change in policy,” he explained.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">Beyond the elections, Peralta said the association will focus 2015 efforts on growing relations in the Brazilian market to the extent that a microsite has been developed specifically for strategic partnerships alongside the newly launched Languages Canada site.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“Brazil is one of the six identified countries in Canada’s International Education Strategy, and it’s the one where I think it’s a natural fit for Canada,” Peralta said.</p><p style="font-family:'PT Sans',sans-serif;font-size:0.857em;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px;line-height:20px">“It seemed to make sense to move from that sort of market aspect where we see 18,000 Brazilians here every year to learn the language more to the partnership aspect.”</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 9.296875px 18.59375px 0px"><font face="PT San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