Q20562 - ESOL Capacity Building and Development

The North West Regional Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) is hosted by Manchester City Council, under a long-standing arrangement, on behalf of the North West region. The service is 100% externally funded from several grant funding arrangements (GFA) issued by the Home Office and DLUHC.

DLUHC recently issued the SMP with a GFA that specifically focused on increasing the capacity of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision throughout the whole region, with a specific focus on ensuring Ukrainian refugees were better able to access English classes to aide their integration.

The SMP is utilising various approaches when considering meeting its obligations under its GFA with DLUHC, in order to meet demand across the region. One of these approaches is to provide funding to University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) to provide 21 spaces on a Level 5 Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) course, attracting participants from across Lancashire and Cumbria via a blended face-to-face/virtual method. Lancashire and Cumbria have some of the highest number of Ukrainian sponsorships in the region, but also have some of the lowest ESOL course provision. The methodology used by UCLAN is to mix learning with practical application of skills, which will further develop capacity within those locations by supporting people into volunteering opportunities - supported by exploring employment opportunities locally on successful completion of the course.

There will be a focus on recruiting people with lived experience of forced migration for this course e.g. Ukrainians, Afghans, Hong Kongers, those resettled as refugees in the UK or granted refugee status whilst in the UK etc.