East Midlands Councils (EMC) is working with the Migrant English Support Hub (MESH) to develop deeper understanding of the challenges facing English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) providers and migrant English learners in the East Midlands.
We wanted to ‘benchmark’ ESOL in the East Midlands, to gain insight into opportunities to provide support and coordination to the sector in a way that complements the brilliant work already underway by the 200+ ESOL providers in the region.
We also wanted to hear what migrant learners had to say about what it’s like to learn English as a new arrival to the UK, and their reflections on the English classes they were taking part in.
The project started in April 2024, and first undertook research to identify and detail as many ESOL providers in the East Midlands region as possible. These are shown on the interactive map below, and will support EMC’s ongoing engagement with ESOL tutors and institutions.
In June 2024, we hosted an online event on Zoom for ESOL providers to speak with us in more detail about the wider ESOL coordination work and the benchmarking project, with nearly 40 providers attending.
Next, the project set up focus groups with learners, one-to-one interviews with providers, and an online survey to gather detailed information about the ESOL landscape – what works well, what could be improved, and the measures we can take to better connect and support the sector.
The project culminated in early September 2024 with a final report which breaks down the results of the research, and provides a set of detailed recommendations to further develop EMC’s coordination activity.
EMC is pleased to present the full report here, as well as a summary of the findings and recommendations.
