New Project: Foundational Driving Skills for Francophone Newcomers in Edmonton

In partnership with the Edmonton Community Adult Learning Association (ECALA), CANAVUA has launched a new project: Foundational Driving Skills for Francophone Newcomers in Edmonton. An extension of our current Driver Training program, this project seeks to broaden the scope of our services and resources offered to clients.

In particular, we have been commissioned to develop and release new testing software, which will draw 20-30 randomized questions from a bank of over 200 to mimick the testing environment of the Alberta Class 7 (Learner's Licence) theoretical exam. In addition to providing test questions, this new software will provide feedback to students as to right and wrong answers, and keep track of students' grade histories to show program participants their progress through graphical representations at the end of each test. When learners see that they are consistently getting high scores, they will know that they are ready to write the theoretical exam.

While a number of testing applications for learner's licence candidates already exist and are widely available online, there is currently no testing software specifically available in French for Alberta's rules of the road. We are drawing material from a number of Alberta-specific resources, including the Clear Language Driver's Guide for cars and light trucks to ensure that the software's content is relevant to Albertan drivers in particular.

The need for sound driving education for Francophone newcomers to Alberta cannot be understated. Firstly, the rules of the road in Alberta may differ from those in their respective home countries. Secondly, a Class 5 driver's licence is often a requirement for many jobs, and limited employment opportunities is one of the foremost barriers to integration faced by newcomers to the province.

Whereas our current Driver Training program only entails in-class instruction in preparation for the provincial theoretical exam, we will, under the framework of our new project, offer additional preparoty measures for learners and new drivers. In this way, our Driver Training program will be divided into two components: Class 7 prep (featuring practice exercises using our software and individual revision using Alberta's Driver's Handbook) and a Class 7 workshop (i.e. six hours of classroom training with a government-certified instructor). Workshops will be monthly, while the preparatory component of our program will be ongoing. We feel that this broaded curriculum will serve to enhance the educational experience of our students.

ECALA is an organization that "empowers adult learners to benefit from accessible foundational learning opportunities," "[supporting] lifelong adult learning that promotes innovation, collaboration, and cooperation in an environment of respect for diverse learners" (source: ECALA's website). Seeing, then, the need for Francophone, immigrant adults to acquire driver's licences, it is clear that CANAVUA and ECALA's partnership will be of inestimable benefit to the many clients with whom we work each and every day.

In accordance with CANAVUA's mandate to "promote and enhance volunteering in Edmonton's Francophone community," volunteers will be widely implicated in this project. From testing the new software to helping to deploy programming, every step of the way will involve volunteers, who are at the very heart of our organization.

Further learning opportunities will naturally be available to our program's graduates, as they will eventually seek to obtain their Class 5 driver's licences - the ultimate goal of Alberta's Graduated Driver's Licensing program. Some may even go on to obtain higher classes of licences for commercial purposes, which will heighten their economic prospects and career opportunities. We will refer clients to Global Driving School for such further learning opportunities.

All in all, we feel this to be a very promising project, and look forward to unveilling it in the months to come.

Dicky Dikamba, Executive Director of CANAVUA, with Debbie Clark, Executive Director of ECALA, at CANAVUA's office. The project Foundational Driving Skills for Francophone Newcomers in Edmonton has been funded by ECALA.

Dicky Dikamba

Executive Director

Canadian Volunteers United in Action (CANAVUA)