Do as I say, not as I do
This week in particular, our lovely Prime Minister has been banging on about the importance of integration and British values and all that stuff.
And then he sloped off on what is planned to be the first of possibly 3 holidays before reluctantly coming back to work in September, but that's another story altogether...
One of the ways we encourage integration and all that is by people who live here learning English. It's good for people, both as individuals and as employees, that they can communicate with other people in the community in which they are living. Likewise it's good for employers if the people they employ are able to do their job and having an appropriate level of English helps with that too.
As my regular readers will know, I teach English to folks in that situation, some of whom pay for themselves and some of whom are sent by the Job Centre because their English needs to be better in order for them to get and keep a job. We also get folks who are kind of in the middle of this, not sent by the Job Centre, but taking advantage of the lower fees for people who are on state benefits. Last year we ran about 60 classes, because we were getting some money in advance for the folks who get sent and also some money afterwards if we get people through exams.
However, given this government's stunning record on hypocritical decision making, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the budget to cover people being sent to learn English has been completely axed this week (and while we knew there was a possibility of some cuts, we didn't expect it would get the chop). Which means no guarantees for the organisation I work for that we will get enough bodies in September to make classes viable and therefore leaving folks like me (who don't have a permanent contract, so the organisation has no obligations to give me work) in limbo.
I literally went from a conversation on Monday about classes I would shortly be confirmed as teaching in September to an email yesterday afternoon that they may not be able to offer me anything because it's all up in the air. Likewise, I'd been offered a place at college myself from September to start getting a full teaching qualification, but that's conditional on me having teaching hours so they can observe me over the year. No teaching hours = no college place.
At the moment, I'm not sure if I'm more angry or upset but (as you can imagine) not feeling great about this. We're also just over 2 weeks away from Geekfest and I really don't feel like dealing with all of that at the moment - curling up under the duvet for the foreseeable future is looking far more appealing!
Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.
And then he sloped off on what is planned to be the first of possibly 3 holidays before reluctantly coming back to work in September, but that's another story altogether...
One of the ways we encourage integration and all that is by people who live here learning English. It's good for people, both as individuals and as employees, that they can communicate with other people in the community in which they are living. Likewise it's good for employers if the people they employ are able to do their job and having an appropriate level of English helps with that too.
As my regular readers will know, I teach English to folks in that situation, some of whom pay for themselves and some of whom are sent by the Job Centre because their English needs to be better in order for them to get and keep a job. We also get folks who are kind of in the middle of this, not sent by the Job Centre, but taking advantage of the lower fees for people who are on state benefits. Last year we ran about 60 classes, because we were getting some money in advance for the folks who get sent and also some money afterwards if we get people through exams.
However, given this government's stunning record on hypocritical decision making, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the budget to cover people being sent to learn English has been completely axed this week (and while we knew there was a possibility of some cuts, we didn't expect it would get the chop). Which means no guarantees for the organisation I work for that we will get enough bodies in September to make classes viable and therefore leaving folks like me (who don't have a permanent contract, so the organisation has no obligations to give me work) in limbo.
I literally went from a conversation on Monday about classes I would shortly be confirmed as teaching in September to an email yesterday afternoon that they may not be able to offer me anything because it's all up in the air. Likewise, I'd been offered a place at college myself from September to start getting a full teaching qualification, but that's conditional on me having teaching hours so they can observe me over the year. No teaching hours = no college place.
At the moment, I'm not sure if I'm more angry or upset but (as you can imagine) not feeling great about this. We're also just over 2 weeks away from Geekfest and I really don't feel like dealing with all of that at the moment - curling up under the duvet for the foreseeable future is looking far more appealing!
Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.