The ESOL team at Adult Community Learning Essex (ACL Essex) has been preparing to embed the new Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs) in their ESOL provision by developing an introductory course for lower level ESOL learners. The aim is to build the confidence and skills of these learners towards taking an Entry 3 Level EDSQ. The course has been developed by an ESOL teacher and started during the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’ period before transferring to classroom-based delivery. This is the story of the team’s progress to date, reflecting on successes, challenges and next steps.
We interviewed:
ACL Essex created a ten-week RARPA course to introduce Essential Digital Skills (EDS) to lower level ESOL learners. ESOL Tutor Carol Samlal designed and delivered the course and at the time of the interview had run two sessions during the lockdown period, so wholly online. Carol designed the scheme of work around the structure of the five key skills areas set out in the national standards, with initial sessions dedicated to helping learners navigate the online learning platform, Microsoft Teams.
The ACL Essex team has also been embedding digital skills into ESOL classes, either organically where there are naturally occurring opportunities, or using a block of non-regulated funding where all learners then have targets which can be focused on digital skills.
“Steps towards EDS…” Alexandra Bates, Curriculum Lead for ESOL at ACL Essex describes progress with Essential Digital Skills courses.
“It is promising…” Carol Samlal, ESOL Tutor, describes her approach to the EDS preparatory course.
Steps towards EDSQs
Breaking EDS down
The ACL Essex ESOL team is committed to ensuring that language is not a barrier preventing any of their learners from engaging with the digital world. Alexandra feels that the digital skills set out in the new national standards can help ESOL learners to connect with their communities and with wider economic and social opportunities. It is therefore important that the language in the EDS courses is adapted to ensure that ESOL learners can participate and develop their essential digital skills.
“It really broadens their choice of jobs…” ESOL tutor Carol Samlal explains why the new digital entitlement is important for ESOL learners.
Why EDS matters
Alexandra has found the ETF’s EDS staff development programme – especially the ESOL specific pathway – “a lifeline” for starting the dialogue around EDSQs for ESOL learners. With delays in EDSQ availability from awarding organisations and the constraints on delivery caused by the pandemic, Alexandra feels that the programme has helped to maintain focus on progressing EDSQs.
More broadly, tutors are using the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform to develop their digital skills. The Council has an organisation-wide strategy for developing staff’s digital skills and confidence, with a lot of internal training and support from the IT department. Alexandra feels this has given tutors a good grounding in key digital skills and now that they have got past the anxieties of having to transition to remote delivery, they have gained the confidence and skills to start exploring wider digital teaching CPD opportunities, especially on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform.
“There is certainly a need and a drive for ESOL learners to access EDSQs and ESOL tutors have been receptive. I hope the EDS CPD programme continues as it seems to be tapping into a pool of undiscovered talent and passion for bringing tech to low literacy learners.” – Alexandra Bates, Curriculum Lead for ESOL
“There are ways of doing it…” How the ETF CPD programme for Essential Digital Skills has helped the ESOL team at ACL Essex.
“After the initial panic…”
Alexandra Bates, Curriculum Lead for ESOL at ACL Essex explains how staff needed to build initial digital skills confidence to explore wider digital CPD independently.
Value of the ETF CPD programme
As a follow-on to in-house training
Aside from the challenges of learning remotely, the biggest challenge has been breaking down the technical language in the EDSQs to make it manageable for ESOL learners.
Carol found that her ESOL learners lacked confidence to try something new – even something as simple as clicking on a link or button – fearing that it would have unforeseen consequences. The introductory course has focused on overcoming these initial hurdles and giving learners easy-to-achieve but really useful everyday skills such as time-saving keyboard shortcuts to help build confidence.
For Carol and colleagues, teaching remotely across a range of devices has been particularly challenging but this pressure will ease once it is possible to return to teaching in-centre using standard laptops. The main issue for the introductory course and preparing for the EDSQs has been the heavy investment of time to develop suitable resources. Now they have a collection of resources, which they are sharing.
With lockdown easing and a return to face-to-face delivery, the plan is to continue to expand delivery and move from introductory courses to running EDSQs. Alexandra’s main challenge is who should teach EDSQs to ESOL learners – IT teachers or existing ESOL staff? If IT teachers deliver, they are unlikely to have experience of teaching ESOL learners, but most ESOL staff do not have the skills and confidence to cover the new Essential Digital Skills syllabus. This is where the ESOL strand of the ETF’s CPD programme has the potential to support in enabling ESOL tutors to share ESOL specific Essential Digital Skills resources and tips for delivery.
Essex County Council commissions Adult Community Learning Essex (ACL Essex) to provide learning across the county, excluding the unitary authorities of Thurrock and Southend. Essex is a large county with a rapidly growing and ageing population of around 1.4 million. It has a wide range of communities spanning rural, urban and coastal areas with widely varying qualification levels and areas of significant social deprivation. ACL Essex is principally a direct delivery service and has adult community learning centres in most of the major towns in Essex. In addition to the ten major community learning centres, courses take place at 190 community venues. ACL Essex provides accredited and non-accredited adult learning in 13 subject areas and apprenticeships in three. Just under a third of courses are accredited.
(Extract from Ofsted report 2018)