Press & Media /
Training Connect helps aspiring UK citizens bridge the language and culture gap
Training Connect – the specialist Esol with Citizenship training provider whose national centre of excellence in Hounslow recently trained and quality assured its 3,000th student just six months after opening its doors – has extended an open invitation to local community leaders to come and see for themselves its exceptionally high standards of training and support.
The firm provides a service for which there is a very significant demand among the UK’s ethnic communities. The Government now requires anyone applying for naturalisation or indefinite leave to remain in the UK to pass the Life in the UK test or – if their language skills are below Esol (English for speakers of other languages) Level 3 – to take an Esol with Citizenship course from an approved provider and be quality assured at the end of it before going through a citizenship ceremony. But many applicants for citizenship simply cannot access the training support they need.
Training Connect was set up as business when it became clear that the UK’s ethnic minority communities were being very poorly served by existing Esol with Citizenship providers in both the public and private sectors. Unable to identify partners who were able to deliver the standards of professionalism they were looking for, Training Connect researched and developed from scratch a course and delivery methodology that has become the unofficial benchmark for the sector– becoming experts in interpreting the range of recently introduced government guidelines in the process!
Training Connect Chief Executive Chris Varley explains: “We first started looking at this sector in the context of another business that focuses on marketing UK universities to international students. What we found when we came to look at English language tuition in the UK for people from overseas truly shocked us. The Government had brought in new requirements that applicants for UK citizenship must speak English to a certain standard and understand the culture. But ethnic minority communities in the UK simply didn’t know where to turn.
“Community colleges offering the course quickly became oversubscribed – and even once applicants had got past the waiting list, the course could take many weeks to complete, studying just one to two hours per week – which is not particularly helpful when the people studying could be forced to leave the country if they do not meet tight deadlines.”
“We also found some private colleges had low academic standards, providing little or no real support for their students – many of whom had very limited English language skills – and seemed only interested in making a quick buck. Many of the ones we checked out didn’t even appear to have understood the government guidelines properly or planned out adequately how to deliver the course. Others hadn’t sent out certificates many months after quality assuring their students. Quite simply, they were taking unfair advantage of their customers.
“This is all the more concerning given that inability to speak English was highlighted in September this year by Darra Singh, chair of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (CIC) as the biggest single barrier to successful integration, with a MORI poll confirming that 60% of those surveyed saw language difficulties as the main challenge they faced.
“Training Connect is a business like any other, of course, but we deliberately set out to establish a standard of excellence in Esol with Citizenship provision. We were also determined from the start to do what other providers clearly weren’t doing: providing the personal support and encouragement required by Esol students from ethnic minorities – respecting and accommodating their different cultural backgrounds and being able to converse with them in their own languages to help convey the finer points of language and culture we are required to get across. This has brought us a lot of support from solicitor firms specialising in immigration matters and also from local community leaders we have already spoken to.
“We are genuinely committed to helping people understand and play a greater part in the cultural, social and economic life of the UK – not just getting them to learn by rote to get through a test. We understand and allow for our students’ cultural background and are flexible about things like gender sensibilities – as well as providing crèche facilities and offering flexible hours for people who are unable to attend during normal working hours. This means our students can complete the course within several days of intensive study rather than many weeks. We continue training them for as long as it takes until they are ready to be quality assured. If citizenship ceremonies are required we can even coach them for these, filming them on a DVD they can take home to practice with.”
The rapidly growing reputation of Training Connect to date is largely a word of mouth phenomenon. Surprised and delighted students have returned to their local communities with glowing words of praise for this new and very different training provider – encouraging friends and relations to contact Training Connect. This has already fully vindicated the company’s philosophy of doing far more than the bare minimum. More recently the company has begun to build on this word of mouth awareness by putting cards (printed in 17 different languages) in the windows of local shops and stores across London and a running a limited radio advertising campaign in West London.
Now Training Connect is focusing on building links with local community leaders and institutions – mosques, temples, gurdwaras – to get across the message that Training Connect really is doing something different.
Chris Varley concludes: “There is a pressing demand out there for Esol with Citizenship – a demand which is currently very poorly served. This is causing a lot of worry and anxiety among the UK’s ethnic minority communities. Many of the students who come to us are very stressed indeed. They may be unable to find a suitable course – or they may have failed Life in the UK several times over – and feel panic-stricken as deadlines bear down on them. We want to make sure their needs are being met – and met in the right way. Of course we are running a business – but we are also meeting a vital social need.”
For further information contact:
Training Connect on 0208 538 0248
