Language training is a talent strategy, not a compliance exercise

As Canadian employers navigate hiring freezes and a tightening bilingual talent pool, language training is a people strategy, not a compliance obligation, according to Johnson Bresnick, Vice-President, Strategy, People and Learning at ACA-ProLang in Quebec City.

Bresnick says that ACA-Prolang – a corporate language training provider supporting more than 4,000 learners per week across 250 companies – will carry that message to HRFest Canada 2026 as an exhibitor at the country's leading HR leadership conference, scheduled for Nov. 10 and 11 at Rebel in Toronto.

ACA-Prolang regularly encounters a gap between how Canadian organizations frame language training and what it can deliver, according to Bresnick. He says many arrive focused on compliance – meeting bilingual designation requirements tied to Official Languages Act (OLA) obligations, for example – but the real opportunity lies further upstream.

"Language training is about dealing with humans," Bresnick says. "It intersects with learning, with talent development, with recruitment, but also the employee experience and inclusion – the ability to participate in bilingual meetings, understand what's going on, and the ability to feel involved and included in those environments."

From compliance to capability through language training

Under the Official Languages Act, federal institutions must maintain designated bilingual positions and deliver services in both English and French. Language training programs have historically been organized around satisfying those thresholds – moving employees from one proficiency level to the next.

Bresnick says ACA ProLang is working to shift that conversation. Progress measured purely by level advancement misses the human dimension of the work.

"It's not just looking at how do we churn these humans out from level A to level B to level C, but also how do we make sure that they feel more supported, feel more confident, and it fits within their organization's employee development strategy," he says.

Since ACA and ProLang joined forces in 2022, the company has scaled to support more than 4,000 learners per week across 250 companies, from Vancouver to Halifax, according to the company – a footprint that Bresnick says reflects a growing shift in how employers treat the investment.

That shift aligns with a broader reorientation underway in Canadian workplaces, with HR leaders rethinking the purpose of training in 2026, moving away from participation metrics toward measurable capability gains.

Hiring freezes push internal development

HRFest Canada 2026 is built around the questions dominating HR planning right now, including workforce planning under hiring freezes. Bresnick says language training intersects directly with that theme.

Federal departments and Crown corporations that once filled designated bilingual roles through recruitment are increasingly unable to do so. Internal development has become the more practical path, he says.

"Organizations actually have to look internally and see who's performing in the job currently, who holds the position but doesn't necessarily have the language skills, and who can we develop,” he says. “They’re looking at making our organization more future-ready for needs that we may have, or needs we currently have that we're not able to fulfill because of talent pipeline issues."

Building employee confidence and communication

Many employees are already working in their second language but lack enough structured practice to perform consistently, says Bresnick. Confidence isn’t a soft metric – it shapes how people participate in meetings, communicate with clients, and engage with their teams, he says.

"Feeling comfortable enough to switch into a second language without hesitation is something that’s a little bit more nuanced and requires a lot more practice and preparation for some people," he says.

ACA-ProLang sees HRFest Canada 2026's five-stage program at Rebel Toronto as an opportunity to hear firsthand what workforce challenges HR leaders are most urgently working to solve, says Bresnick.

Culture an underestimated factor in language training

Bresnick believes the most overlooked dimension of language training is its effect on workplace culture. Organizations can fund training and declare themselves bilingual while still creating environments where second-language employees feel excluded, he says. The difference lies in whether the culture genuinely accommodates the learning journey.

"It's one thing to say that you offer language training. It's another to say that you’re accepting of someone's learning journey," he says. "When you say that you hold bilingual meetings, if that meeting switches very quickly from one language to another but doesn't accommodate the people in the room, it really does affect your company culture."

The stakes are tangible for organizations where both official languages play a role in the business. "It will impact their ability to retain top talent and their ability to motivate current talent," Bresnick says.

Language training as talent strategy at HRFest Canada

Beyond the exhibitor floor, ACA ProLang is attending HRFest Canada 2026 to understand what problems HR professionals are actively trying to solve – and to test whether its approach to measuring training value aligns with what organizations need, according to Bresnick.

"There's a lot of pressure on organizations to demonstrate that training actually has impact and they don't just want to measure participation,” he says. “They want to see that there's actual progress and that they're moving towards their goals, and with language training, it’s asking those different questions and seeing actual performance.”

Bresnick cites as an example a current client who’s gathering direct manager feedback to assess whether employees undergoing language training are performing more effectively in their second language on the job – an approach that mirrors ACA-ProLang's broader philosophy.

"Language training needs to come from a place that's woven into other parts of the overall HR strategy or the overall talent development strategy," he says. “It's about overall skill development, overall confidence and performance.”

For organizations working to connect learning investment with talent retention and development outcomes, that message sits at the centre of what ACA-ProLang is bringing to HRFest Canada 2026: language capability, built thoughtfully over time, belongs in how Canadian organizations develop their people, according to Bresnick.

“We want to show our services and show how we can be a strategic partner for [HR],” says Bresnick. “But a lot of our clients are already [attending HRFest Canada], so it's an opportunity to talk to them, see what kind of issues they're facing currently, and look at the current trends in learning and development and employee training they’re planning for their employees.”

HRFest Canada runs Nov. 10 and 11 at Rebel in Toronto, with registration open now.