Education and training services

Tender description

Talk English is funded by the Ministry of housing, communities and Local Government via Manchester Adult education service as the lead partner for our region. Talk English has been delivered in Kirklees since 2013. This provision must build on previous good practice to ensure maximum impact. It should be designed to align with other ESOL provision such as. Communicate and connect, ESOL for All, ESIF funded provision and wider mainstream ESOL provision. In addition other community based provision that may also support the target group should be taken into account in the design. Proposals were invited by the Council of the Borough of Kirklees (the “Council”) from shortlisted Capable delivery partners currently on Category 3 – English language support for English speakers of other languages (ESOL) of the Council’s Dynamic purchasing system for the Provision of education, training, employment and lifelong learning (REF: KMCIRS-064). We want to support projects that are going to have a meaningful and lasting impact on their learners, their areas, and on the future provision of entry level, community-based English language training. The emphasis will be on building language skills, knowledge and confidence to engage in the local community. Each session should provide the following as a minimum: — safe and welcoming environment for the learners, — facilitated practice of conversational English, — encouragement to continue learning in to more formal ESOL provision, — support to access local services. Talk English will be interactive and engaging to support engagement and retention. It will be made up of 2 distinct strands of activity. 1) Talk English courses: Courses should have a scheme of work/ lesson plan curriculum developed with a focus on conversational English. It is envisaged that these will be for a minimum of 30 Guided learning hours (GLH) and be run over a minimum of 12 consecutive weeks. It is envisaged that 15 learners will attend each course. On this basis we would expect that a minimum of 28 courses will be delivered over the lifetime of the project. Each course should be delivered by 2 volunteer tutors, team teaching. One of these volunteers must have a minimum qualification of Level 3 Award in education and training. 2) Talk English activities: These will be group sessions actively encouraging learners to use their language outside the classroom by providing support and a range of enrichment activities. Activities will have a wide range of conversational language skills embedded and should cover a range of topics to support community cohesion, developments of hobbies and interests, lifestyle choices and to build learners’ knowledge of the local area. There is an expectation that 50 % of learners on Talk English Courses will engage with at least 2 activities. A significant element of the Talk English provision is the use of volunteers throughout all delivery. Volunteers (Tutors and friends) should be suitably trained and supported volunteers to lead the courses and activities as set out above. It is expected that volunteers trained through previous phases of Talk English will be utilised to support this provision along with new volunteers identified throughout the lifetime of the provision. Each Talk English Course should be led by 2 Volunteer tutors, one of which must have a minimum qualification of Level 3 Award in education and training and the other should have received a minimum of 15 hours of training. Volunteer friends should support the delivery of Talk English activities. They should have received a minimum of 5 hours of training. Training materials can be accessed via the Talk English website.