Towards the Development of a Bilingual Workforce: The DuocUC Experience in Chile

Author: 
Marcelo Contreras, Philip Cary, Annabelle Galera Simpson
Publisher: 
CONAHEC
Year of Publication: 
2010

The largest technical training center and professional institute in Chile, Departamento Universitario Obrero Campesino (DuocUC) is the country's equivalent of the "community college" in the U.S.] a higher education institution committed to workplace and professional training. It also happens to be Chile's leading higher education institution for English as a foreign language training. This panel will discuss the successful collaboration put in place by DuocUC working with Seminarium Certificacion, the chief language certification institution in Chile and Educational Testing Service (ETS) of Princeton, N.J.. In addition to presenting an outline of the DuocUC EFL curriculum and the evaluation techniques being employed, the panel will offer a description of the Chilean public policy initiatives that are serving as a direct catalyst for the development of a bilingual workforce in Chile.

Event Information
Event Title: 
13e Colloque nord-américain sur l'enseignement supérieure du CONAHEC - Houston 2010
Event Description: 

Join leaders and practitioners of higher education, business, government and students at Rice University in the city of Houston, Texas for CONAHEC’s 13th North American Higher Education Conference!North Americans share many historical, cultural, and linguistic bonds and have many common issues to face. Since the signing of NAFTA, our region has become the largest trading block in the world, inextricably linked by growing economic ties. Leaders in North America recognize that regional and individual community prosperity depends largely on the global competencies of our future professionals -- today's students.A decade and a half into NAFTA, it is evident that our region must develop stronger, more productive and more resilient linkages both internally and with other world regions. Governmental and educational leaders acknowledge that higher education institutions in North America must be more proactive in offering students opportunities to gain international expertise by becoming more internationally oriented while simultaneously strengthening local connections in their teaching, research and public service functions. Higher education has an important role to play in strengthening North America and connecting it with the rest of the world.