Hidden Talents and Speed-dating: Employability for Students Seeking Sanctuary

Faced with lots of new asylum seeker/refugee learners into the college, the ESOL department at Preston College sought out local professional and voluntary groups to improve support mechanisms for their learners.

Employability skills are integrated into teaching sessions but it was recognised that employment was a real barrier for asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom were highly skilled professionals in their native country.

An Advice and Guidance “speed dating” event was held with teaching staff from across college vocational and professional areas for learners to learn more about the qualifications they would require to obtain employment in their chosen areas. It was apparent that staff in different areas of the college were unaware of the skills and qualities of the ESOL cohort which led to some innovative approaches to including learners within their areas.

The colleges then hosted a “Hidden Talent” event to engage local businesses and encourage them to consider changes to their recruitment processes to make them more inclusive for refugees.

The Red Cross spoke about the journey for asylum seekers to the UK and explained the legalities of employing refugees. Asylum seeker learners spoke emotionally about their life before fleeing to the UK and Job Centre Plus gave details of “Job Trials”. Preston’s College explained the different areas of language skills. A local company spoke about the advantages of employing a diverse workforce and a local Construction company spoke about his experience in employing a Syrian refugee – and he reciprocated.

The event was a resounding success with other areas interested in replicating the event in other parts of the county and 100% of attendees responding that they would consider employing a refugee. Opportunities for voluntary employment were also opened up for Asylum Seekers through the college network.

Open Days at Universities of Sanctuary with Syrian Futures

Syrian Futures is based in the Alwaleed Centre, at The University of Edinburgh, and offers Scottish Syrians of all ages advice, support and training to help them access higher/further education and find their way to fulfilling jobs and careers. Many of the Syrians they work with are students in their final year of college and so they have organised special open days at Scottish universities, during which students can talk to academics and students to get a feel for university life. They also discuss access courses available through local colleges which will help them in their journey towards university.

In February 2020 they organised a visit to the University of St Andrews. The young people really enjoyed walking around the campus and learning about different aspects of university life. They then took part in a workshop with St Andrews PhD student, Nouha Idrees (School of Psychology and Neuroscience) on the Importance of self-compassion in adolescents. Afterwards, the group had a really memorable handling session with archaeological material led by Prof. Rebecca Sweetman, Head of the School of Classics and Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology, who, as chair of the Refugee and Forced Mobility Network within the University, led the St Andrews initiative to become a University of Sanctuary.

It was a greatly beneficial day, helping to build connections between the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews,  both Universities of Sanctuary, and raise awareness among the Syrian community of different higher education options. It was a great pleasure to see how this visit motivated and inspired those who took part.

The Beautiful Game: ESOL, Football, and a bit of Christmas Cheer

Halesowen College had a few ESOL students who were keen to start a football team.  This project was supported as part of a Sport England initiative and quickly grew to 28 students who attend a training session each week.  The interest from so many students enabled them to create an ESOL football team which has FA accreditation.  The team participated in 5 tournaments last year. Many of the ESOL students would have had nothing to do on Christmas Day, so they organised a Christmas Day football match, which was attended by ESOL students and staff from a large number of College departments.  Staff not only cheered on the footballers, but also supplied the refreshments and bought small Christmas gifts. Following the Christmas Day match, ESOL footballers were given tickets to watch West Bromwich Albion play later the same week.  This year our ESOL footballers are part of the Birmingham County Flexi College League.  This league has enabled them to enter both male and female teams with varying levels of football experience and ability and has encouraged non-sporting students to engage with football activities.

Swansea Refugee & Asylum Seeker Covid Virtual Support

Gower College Swansea is very proud and privileged to have a strong working relationship with the Swansea Refugee and Asylum Seeker support group. For many years the College met has supported learners seeking sanctuary into education and guaranteed opportunities for these learners to progress into higher level courses and employment. Ultimately the goal of any College is to provide opportunity coupled with a safe environment and sanctuary for all learners to achieve their goals and aspirations. During the present times of uncertainty, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the College met with the support group to see how we could influence and action key issues for the benefit of learners seeking sanctuary. The main topics we worked together to resolve were:

1. Removal of course enrolment fees so no barrier in place for education
2. Equality of transportation to support learners travelling to College for education
3. Digital deprivation to ensure learners were not disadvantaged from their studies
4. Single point of contact (SPOC) to resolve issues in a timely manner

Art and Design student Flora Luckman was recently commissioned by Gower College Swansea to create a bespoke piece of work that captures the ethos and atmosphere of the Llwyn y Bryn Campus. Flora has recently completed the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Llwyn y Bryn and is now progressing to the University of Edinburgh to study Illustration.

“As my final project, I chose to do a children’s book about the environment and traveling around the world,” says Flora. “Our Learning Area Manager Kieran Keogh really liked one of the pages, which featured a world map, and commissioned me to make a bigger piece, based around the multiculturalism of the campus.”

“Alongside our art and design, photography and music students, Llwyn y Bryn is also home to ESOL learners, many of whom came to the UK as refugees and asylum seekers and who want to develop their English skills,” says Kieran. “So it was really important that Flora’s artwork reflect and celebrate all our students, past and present. 

You can see the original post on the Gower College website here

Gower College Swansea was officially recognised as a College of Sanctuary in September 2021, the first FE College in Wales to receive such an accolade.