By Kim Hutchison
Staff Reporter:
Veronica Malcher is currently a teacher’s aide at Mecca Glenn School but her desire and ability to educate doesn’t stop there.
Malcher is a volunteer for the Wetaskawin and District Community Literacy Program and with the help of local industry funding, she recently completed teaching a group of 20 Fillipino Wetaskiwin Supreme International employees the first industry-based English as a Second Language (ESL) course. The two-hour classes took place on site once a week for ten straight weeks and on Sept. 29 the employees each received certificates in recognition of their accomplishments.
The course primarily concentrated on improving conversational skills and Malcher was extremely satisfied with the results of her efforts.
“The course was just fantastic – what a success. Their oral abilities continued to improve week after week and now they have the skills to make the transition into a Canadian system that much easier,” said Malcher.
Malcher, whose native country is Columbia, knows how difficult it can be to relocate to a country without fully understanding the language so she is pleased to volunteer her time to literacy initiatives such as this one.
“It’s always neat when two different people from two different cultures can come together to teach and learn the English language. There is an immediate cultural understanding followed by such a positive outcome,” she said.
Malcher is glad to see that other industries have partnered with the Literacy Program to provide this service mentioning Manluck Industries, also located in Wetaskiwin, is currently putting on an ESL program for their employees as well.