Explore, Destination Clic, and Odyssey are three educational exchange programs administered by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) and funded by the

Department of Canadian Heritage The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage (), is the department of the Government of Canada that has roles and responsibilities related to initiatives that promote and support "Canadian identity and values, cultural develo ...

to promote

bilingualism in Canada The official languages of Canada are English language, English and French language, French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament of Canada, Parliament and Government ...

. CMEC is a coordinating body for the various provincial education ministries. It operates these educational exchange programs with funding assistance from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.

Bursary programs

The Summer Language Bursary Program (later Explore) was created in 1971 by the Government of Canada and funded by the Secretary of State on the advice of the first

Official Languages Commissioner An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...

Keith Spicer Keith Spicer (March 6, 1934 – August 24, 2023) was a Canadian academic, public servant, journalist, and writer. Between 1970 and 1977, Spicer was Canada's first Commissioner of Official Languages. Education Spicer held a BA in Modern Languag ...

. This was joined by Official Language Monitor Program (now Odyssy) in 1973 and the ''Programme de bourses d’été pour francophones hors Québec'' (PBEFHQ; meaning "Summer bursary program for French-speakers outside of Quebec"; now Destination Clic) in 1977. By 1983, the Summer Language Bursary Program had a budget of $13 million per year, which the then-languages commission Max Yalden thought was a better investment than the "bilingual bonus" being paid to federal civil servants; at the time the SLBP was turning away two out of every three applicants. Explore provides

bursaries A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some awar ...

for students to travel for 5 weeks to another province and immerse themselves in one of Canada's two official languages (English and French). Summer programs for language learning predate the bursaries but are now considered the main source for most students who attend them. Explore is offered during the spring or summer for people with any skill level in their second language. Explore participants are awarded a bursary that covers tuition fees for the course, instructional materials, meals, and accommodation. They will discover another region of Canada while learning French (or English) in classes adapted to their language level. Through classroom instructions, workshops, sociocultural activities, and

field trips A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of associated peers, such as coworkers or school students, to a place away from their normal environment for the purpose of education or leisure, either within their country or abroad. When ar ...

, they will not only improve their language skills, but discover the culture of a new region as well, all while exploring, meeting new people from across the country, and exchanging ideas in a stimulating environment perfect for learning their second language. Destination Clic provides

for francophone youth (grades 8 and 9) to practice their French in another region of Canada. Odyssey provides a salary for Canadians to work as a language assistant working in a school. Members of the program teach their first (or stronger) language to learners from another language group. Under the supervision of a teacher, they will use games and other activities on a daily basis to motivate students to learn more about their second language. Language assistants will have the opportunity to share their culture, drawing from personal experiences.

Receiving organizations

The ''Association québécoise des écoles de français langue étrangère''

The ''Association québécoise des écoles de français langue étrangère'' ("Quebec Association of French as a Foreign Language Schools", or AQEFLE, founded in 1980) is the grouping for many the institutions that receive funding from Explore. Member schools are the Centre linguistique at the

Collège de Jonquière In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

, the Ateliers de langues at

Collège Saint-Charles-Garnier St. Charles Garnier College () or Jesuit College is a private secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary educat ...

, the French school at the

Collège de Rivière-du-Loup In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

, the École de langues at

Université Laval (; English: ''Laval University)'' is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institutio ...

, the École de français at the

Collège de Trois-Rivières In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

, the École de français de Trois-Pistoles (part of

the University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames River bisecting t ...

), the École de français at

Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

, and the French language school at

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

. The oldest among these is the school at Trois Pistoles which was founded in 1932, and hosts over 600 learners per summer (two five-week cohorts of 250 students plus other short-stay learners) into the small town of just 3,500 residents. It is considered a major economic driver in the town and federal cuts in 2010 were perceived as a threat.

In popular culture

The 2011 film ''

French Immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French- immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects ...

'' is a parody of the kind of intensive French immersion course for adults funded by Explore.

References

{{reflist Hayday, Mathew. ''So they want us to learn French: Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-Speaking Canada''. UBC Press. 2015.

External links