Falkirk Council’s Community Learning and Development (CLD) English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) team, consists of 1.5 full time equivalent community workers who are dedicated to learners who are resettling in Falkirk. There are four sessional staff and five volunteers. They offer assessments and other learning opportunities for ESOL learners living across the local authority area. This work is funded from an annual grant from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and other funding schemes that relate to the resettlement of refugees and those people who may be displaced.

Learner's ages range from 18 to 70. However, due to the war in Ukraine, over the last two years there has been a large increase in refugee parents who have been resettled in the UK.

ESOL groups are online or face-to-face in local community centres to help remove barriers to participation, such as transport, family or work commitments. A flexible approach helps to create opportunities to connect with the communities and support social and cultural integration.

The improvement issue

Towards the end of 2022, routine end-of-term ESOL evaluations highlighted that learners’ written English was not at the required entry level criteria set by Forth Valley College.

Additional barriers to achieving college entry level criteria included:

• age (many felt too old for going back to college);
• lack of confidence;
• fear of academic exams;
• lack of time due to parenting responsibilities;
• nervous in large classes; and
• preference for smaller groups with opportunities for more conversation and learner-led discussions.

It was clear there was a need for an alternative qualification that was achievable despite learners’ written English level being lower than their spoken English level.

What Falkirk Council CLD did

In 2022, Falkirk Council’s CLD Service successfully applied for Scottish Government Covid Recovery Funding, which aimed to restart Community Based Adult Learning (CBAL) provision.

The funding was used to pay for annual registration to deliver Adult Achievement Awards (AAA), staff training and external verification fees.

ESOL was identified as a pilot group, and discussions took place with Newbattle Abbey College (NAC) around the suitability and accessibility of AAAs for ESOL learners. This resulted in two ESOL CLD workers completing mandatory training with NAC.

Eleven ESOL learners signed up for the pilot project in January 2023.

To facilitate AAA delivery:

• Decision to register all learners, initially, at Scottish Credit Qualification Framework level 2 to ensure the award was achievable within the minimum 30 hours of learning.
• Each learner was provided with an individual learner journal and supported to complete this on a weekly basis.
• Discussions were recorded with each learner, which was based on the content of their personal journey.

What the sustained impact has been

AAA accreditation is being used by ESOL learners to support their job applications.

Several learners have started volunteering in community cafés, in charity shops and in ESOL classes.

A summer family celebration event to award certificates and celebrate learners’ success has been established.

There is a 95% attendance rate, which learners advise is due to being more motivated in working towards accreditation. There is a 91% achievement rate.

College partners have advised that form-filling skills have improved due to a renewed focus on writing.

Messaging support groups are in place to assist learners in completing their reflective journals.

AAAs are now embedded in ESOL delivery, training and forward planning, regardless of the CLD worker or location of ESOL session.

CLD ESOL staff have been upskilled due to participation in the AAA online training.

An accessible flowchart that sets out the AAA process for registering learners to receiving certificates is in place, which all staff can access. This ensures all staff have a shared understanding of the process.

Since March 2023, a total of 31 ESOL learners from five different countries have achieved AAAs.