Working with Volunteers in ESOL Provision

1. Working with Volunteers in ESOL Provision Kristen Fraley Jo Jarvis Helena Porrelli

2. Volunteer Tutor Project: • Over 40 current volunteers reaching 150 learners per week in8 community classes and 6 individual matches • CELTA/TESOL trained or equivalent experience • Development Workers provide induction, on-going training/support and swap shops each term • National Remit to share practice with other volunteer co-ordinators

3. Aims for today: • Discuss your work – particularly around training volunteers and supporting volunteers • Reflect on your own practice and identify areas to develop • Take homepotential ideas for how to address gaps • Connectwith other practitioners for future discussions

4. Introductions • Your name • Your organisation • Number of ESOL volunteers • Your volunteers’ role • A recent volunteering highlight 15 minutes

5. Discussions • Minimum requirements and training • Ongoing support

7. Induction training topics

8. Training topics

9. Discussion– minimum requirements and training • What topics do you cover during the induction training? • Is your initial training certificated? If not, do you want it to be? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of providing a qualification at the start? • Does your training prepare volunteers for their role? • How do you know? • What works and what are the gaps? • What resources implications do you need to consider? • Who can help you?

10. Welcoming our Learners- Scotland’s National ESOL Strategy “Volunteers are supported to be competent and confident in their support role to learners"  • Welcoming Our Learners  - Scotland's National ESOL Strategy 2015-2020 (p22)

11. Volunteer Support • Supporting volunteers is a resource in itself • Organisations provide support in a variety of ways, most notable by talking through learner issuesand teaching/resource support • Organisations note they would provide more support if possible Types of support provided and frequency

12. Discussion questions – volunteer support • What type of support are people coming to you with most frequently? • Are you able to address some/most/all of your volunteer support needs? • What support mechanisms do you have in place? Peer support, one to one, groups, phone, email, social gatherings • Does that highlight a gap in the induction/minimum requirements? • Are you addressing support needs of volunteers through your induction and minimum requirements? • How do you evaluate this with volunteers? • Do induction training sessions and the professionalisation of volunteering raise expectations? • Do you give too much support? How do you know?

13. What’s next? • Add project/contact details of any organisation working with volunteers to our website: http://www.glasgowesol.org/volunteer-tutor-projects-in-scotland • Do you have anything specific to share – training, resources? • A national newsletter? • Suggest discussion points for the next national discussion

14. Further resources • Sheffield Organisation for the Voluntary Teaching of English: http://savte.org.uk/ • https://www.futurelearn.com for courses on volunteering with refugees and teaching English • Council of Europe’s Language Support for Adult Refugees Toolkit https://www.coe.int/en/web/language-support-for-adult-refugees/list-of-all-tools