ESOL – Challenge Fund
Pathways to Employment for ESOL learners at Glasgow YWCA
The Pathways to Employment project aimed to increase the opportunity for women,
particularly women with childcare requirements, to access and develop work-based
language skills to enable them to feel confident and ready to apply for work.
Women were able to select the course components which best suited their needs
from the following options:

Core IT Skills for Work delivered by Glasgow Metropolitan College and
provided SQA Level 5 training on Core ICT Skills for the Workplace. The
course involved forty hours of ICT learning for work. The course allowed
learners to gain practical office based ICT skills.

Literacy for Administrators delivered by Glasgow Volunteer Centre. It
consisted of 16 hours of work-based literacy and numeracy skill
development. As a result of the tuition by Glasgow Volunteer Centre, the
course facilitated discussions around the role and benefits of volunteering
amongst the learners.

Reception Skills Training delivered by project staff from the YWCA. It
consisted of eight hours practical training on working on a reception.

Taster Placement. Learners undertook a four hour placement on the
reception of the YWCA’s Family Learning Centre. All women were
supervised and supported by the Project Administrator.

College and Progression Studies Course (CAPS). This consisted of twelve
hours of practical guidance and advice on continuing studies at college and
finding employment. There were relevant inputs from a number of key
partner agencies: Metropolitan College, CALL West (Community Learning
Service), Glasgow West Regeneration Agency, Wise Group, Volunteer Centre
and Working Links. As result of this a number of learners registered with
Glasgow West Regeneration Agency and the Wise Group to pursue potential
work and learning placements following the course.

Move On Event As well as allowing for the presentation of completion
certificates to the participants, the Move On event had stalls and information
displays from Glasgow West Regeneration Agency, Colleges and Further
Education Centres.
Case Study
Silvia has been coming to the YWCA for
roughly two years and has accessed English
classes and undertaken the ECDL in this time.
As part of the ESOL Pathways to Employability
course, Silvia also undertook the Reception
Skills and Core IT Skills for Work courses, and
had a volunteer taster working on the
reception of the YWCA’s Family Learning
Centre. Silvia found the courses and
volunteering really useful and felt that the
ability to put the learning from the reception skills course into practice while
volunteering was extremely useful. As a result of this experience Silvia felt she
gained a lot more confidence in using the skills and putting the knowledge into
practice. Silvia found the Core IT Skills for Work productive as it allowed her to
develop more work focussed IT skills than
she had with the ECDL and it allowed her to practice and perfect tasks like creating
and running a mail merge. Overall, Silvia found the courses and particularly the
volunteering link extremely enjoyable and a really positive experience. As a result
of her training and reception experience Silvia has now been employed as a part
time administrator for the YWCA and loves putting her skills into practice.
Contact Heidi McLean:
Tel: 0141 248 5338
hmclean@ywwcaglasgow.org
Project evaluation
YWCA ESOL
Pathways to Employment Evaluation(forWebsite).doc