Breaking barriers - Effective delivery of ESOL for Jobseekers in London

1. Breaking barriers - Effective delivery of ESOL for Jobseekers in London Pippa Lane and Timothy Riley

2. Introduction • Changes to ESOL landscape • Reduction in funding • Focus funding on those seeking work • Aims of the project • Provide an overview of SFA funded ESOL provision for jobseekers • Identify and evidence effective ESOL provision for jobseekers • Assess the role of local partnerships/relationships • Evaluate measures that support effective transition into employment • Other research commissioned by the GLA

3. Methodology • 15 interviews with ESOL providers • Nine interviews with partners, such as Work Programme providers, JCP partnership manager, Local Authority ESOL services

4. ESOL provision for jobseekers in London

5. What is being provided? • Provision from pre-Entry Level up to Level 2 • But not enough pre-Entry level, as FE colleges, which provided training in the highest volumes, often only started at Entry Level • As well as mainstream courses, many FE colleges ran shorter courses specifically designed for jobseekers • Most provision was discrete ESOL, but also some ESOL embedded with vocational training • But even the discrete courses tended to include employability skills, such as building CVs & answering questions in an interview

6. What’s the point? • Providing ESOL beneficial for social inclusion • Tension in aims between course completion / progression to higher level learning and entering employment • Limited ability to track employment outcomes

7. What does effective ESOL provision for jobseekers look like? • Adequate course length • Appropriate course hours • Routeways onto entry level provision • Single level ESOL courses • Consistency for learners • Flexible ESOL course structures • Availability of both embedded and discrete ESOL provision • Integration of employability into discrete ESOL • New approaches

8. Partnership working

9. Relations with Jobcentre Plus • Some example of good partnership working between ESOL providers (particularly FE Colleges) and JCP... • ...but also some frustration from ESOL providers when working with JCP • JCP involved in designing form (though not content) of provision for jobseekers • Focus of shorter and RORO courses – some concern about this

10. Referrals from JCP • Often problems with the referral process between JCP and ESOL providers • Including, JCP failing to provide as many referrals as expected & referring people who are about to be referred to the Work Programme • But also some examples of good practice • Things tend to work better when ESOL provider has someone based in local Jobcentres • ESOL advice service in one borough, through which all ESOL referrals are routed

11. The Work Programme • Two types of Work Programme providers • Those who conduct ESOL training in-house • Those who refer to external ESOL providers • Plans for the future • Increased collaboration between Prime Contractors on skills • Aim to develop smooth referral pathways – ‘speed dating’, referral pilot • Want increased employer role in designing ESOL courses

12. Recommendations

13. Recommendations 1 • More pre-Entry level provision • Better partnership working between JCP and ESOL providers, including a named ESOL lead in JSA, and provider presence in Jobcentres • Referrals need to improve – including ESOL advice service, ensuring clients can complete course before starting WP, improved assessment of learners (incl. literacy in their first language), better estimate of numbers to help planning.

14. Recommendations 2 • Employers to become more involved in designing ESOL courses • Greater clarity in what ESOL provision is aiming to do – currently a perverse incentive for ESOL providers not to get learners into work. • A relaxation of the 16 hour rule for some jobseekers? Recognition that learning English may be the appropriate thing for a client to do

15. Any questions? Contact details Timothy Riley  0207 840 8342  tim.riley@cesi.org.uk