Wai Yin are proud to report that we have had a second successful term of courses in Salford in partnership with Salford City College’s Community Learning Team. This term we have built on the success over the spring term and run three courses, two ESOL courses and one ICT course.
Our ICT course was called First Steps in ICT and was aimed at absolute beginners or those who are nervous about taking their first steps into the digital world. It took place at Pendleton Gateway and was run by our experienced tutor, Rebecca, who guided the learners through learning how to use email, social media and accessing services online. In a world where the public sector is moving increasingly towards digital services, courses like this are hugely important to help learners master the basics and build their confidence online. The course attracted many new learners and we are hoping to run it again in the autumn term.
First Steps ICT at Pendleton Gateway
Our ESOL courses ran in Pendleton, where we were based in Brotherton House working with Pendleton Together, and in Little Hulton, where we worked with the Big Local again. Both courses were very successful and attracted large numbers of students.
The course in Pendleton was called ESOL for Active Citizenship in the Community and each session was based around a different aspect of active citizenship, ranging from taking care of the local environment to volunteering. We are indebted to the various speakers who came along to talk to the students about these different subjects, giving our learners an opportunity to improve their receptive skills by listening to a wide range of accents and speaking styles, whilst learning valuable new information.
The course in Little Hulton was titled ESOL for Volunteering in the Community and, as its title would suggest, focussed on how volunteering can help learners to improve their English skills and lead to opportunities to find paid employment. During this course learners visited the library to learn about accessing services, had a session with Salford CVS to discover how their individual skills could be matched with volunteering opportunities and met with the National Careers Service. They also visited Mustard Tree to learn about the Freedom Project, which led to two learners applying to become Freedom Project participants.
Both of these ESOL courses have made a big difference to the learners who attended them as they gave them the chance to meet other organisations who could help them, as well as a chance to acquire the language skills they need to understand and access opportunities to improve their lives through becoming more active in their communities, as well as moving closer to the world of employment.
Wai Yin will return to Salford in September 2019 with a range of new courses so please keep a look out for our email, Facebook and Twitter messages about these.
Well done to all our learners, our dedicated tutors and a big thank you to Pendleton Gateway, Pendleton Together and Little Hulton Big Local for all their help and support by providing venues and promoting these courses.