Môn CF has been supporting displaced Ukrainians to improve their English language skills so they can secure work locally.
Since September this year, Anna Smith, an Employment Support Mentor at Môn CF, has been delivering ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) sessions to groups in Holyhead and at Dylan’s in Menai Bridge, who offered space at no cost within their restaurant to support the sessions. ESOL sessions are specifically for students whose first language is not English but who are living in an English-speaking country.
Anna is originally from Ukraine, and she joined Môn CF in February 2022, not long before many Ukrainian refugees were beginning their resettlement in the UK. Anna’s first language is Ukrainian, and she holds a CELTA qualification (Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and has experience in teaching ESOL in schools and further education establishments. This combined with her mentoring role at Môn CF puts Anna in a unique position to develop and deliver the ESOL employment support course. As an organisation, we are extremely pleased to have Anna on board and facilitate the delivery of this programme and we are also extremely grateful to Holyhead Rotary Club for their financial contribution towards these sessions.
UK Home Office data on the Ukraine visa schemes show that as of 15 August 2022, over 115,000 Ukraine Scheme visa-holders had arrived in the UK since those schemes began. Many of these Ukrainian individuals were placed in Anglesey and have been supported by various agencies since their arrival. We believe to have supported approximately 25% of the displaced Ukrainians on the island, and we hope to extend our support offering in the coming months. We have supported individuals from a variety of backgrounds in their native Ukraine including accountants, legal experts, logistics managers, HR specialists, retail operatives and a range of customer service roles.
Anna Smith, Môn CF Employment Support Mentor said:
“With an increasing number of displaced Ukrainians on Anglesey looking for work and struggling due to the language barrier, I realised that employment support had to be adapted and made accessible to speakers of other languages. I started the ESOL Employment Support course to help develop job related vocabulary and basic grammar as well as reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in the context of employment. Additionally, each section of this course is correlated with CV writing, key job search skills, strategies, and techniques in English.”
We look forward to further supporting these individuals into stable employment.