The goal of this program, a branch of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, is to help students learn English or French as a second language.

Positions are available in primary or secondary schools, or in cégeps. One can opt to work full-time or part-time.

I worked 8h/week in Trois-Rivières, Québec with cégep students taking obligatory English courses. (That's how it goes in Québec, even up in college levels.) My role was to create activities which complement the professor's curriculum, and to act as a resource person for the francophone population.

This year, I will work 8h/week in Coquitlam, British Columbia with secondary or elementary students, and the trick is that I will be teaching them French. In order to get such a job, you have to be an anglophone or francophone Canadian (respective to the language you are to teach), and full-time student at a University. If you wanted to work full-time (25h/week), then you cannot be a full-time student (although I know a girl who was).

When in Québec, it was great for my own cultural immersion, and I have certainly improved my own language skills. It isn't precisely a requirement, but in the interview, they made an assessment of our French-language skills, and most everyone in our training session was quite functionally bilingual.

The "Official" part of the title is not to make it sound imperious; it simply designates that participants are monitors for one of Canada's official languages.

Website:   www.cmec.ca/olp/
Telephone: 1.877.866.4242

The Official Language Monitor Program is now known as the "Odyssey/Odyssée" Program, and language monitors are likewise now known as "language assistants" - which latter seems to be for the purpose of keeping constant the vocabulary with the English language assistant programs.

However, the focus of the program has not changed; language assistance continue to work in Québec and New Brunswick (in French) and in anglophone Canada (in English), doing activities with students to improve their second-language skills.

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