The Pontiac Continuing Education Centre in Shawville is offering evening classes for local residents who are interested in improving their conversational French skills. Registration is now open for these 30 hour courses, which will be offered this fall from early September to late November.

PCEC Director Debra Stephens explained that the courses were offered earlier this year for the first time and there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from (Beginner, Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2). The goal is to have around 20 participants per course level.

Stephens, who recently took over the directorship of the PCEC after a stint as the principal of Pontiac High School, said that her goal was to offer their space to anyone in the community with skills or training they'd like to share. She invited the public to pitch her their ideas for future courses.

"What I would like to do is open up the centre to the public, to the community, and tell people that if they have courses that they would be able to give, so maybe there are people that would like to do some art classes, or maybe there's people that want to do knitting, so any other kind of general interest stuff, if they want to use my space at the centre, like I said, that's the vision," she said. "We use it during the day and then the public can use it in the evening."

The cost of the course is $110 for new participants or $80 for returning participants who already have a workbook. For more information please contact cchampagne@wqsb.qc.ca.

The full interview with Stephens is available below: