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The placement i am going on is mainly working with the long term unemployed who are finding it difficult to skill change because of language barriers. So, one particular ddemographic that we'll be dealing with is middle aged Pakistani men who were employed in the textile industry before it's collapse. Because these men are part of a sizable community they often have been able to get by with minimal English or with competant spoken English and little written English. The basic idea of the course is to give them a bridge back into work now that the industry and their primarily Pakistani employers are no longer there.
There are also usually a few refugees or asylum seekers on the course. Apparently the last course had a couple of Iraqis and an Iranian.
I'm hoping to go from this to actually working with one of the refugee support groups. The placement I am on is for a course with an element of compulsion to it ( for those who are long term unemployed) so it isnt ideal. Some of them dont want to be there, others are delighted at the opportunity and some have chosen it with no compulsion. It is however a start and gives me the experience and the language teachers I'll be learning from seem to be decent people who are trying their best to make this into a good thing for their clients and genuinely trying to help people. I think theyve been running the courses for a couple of years but the element of compulsion has only recently been introduced
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