CPD Forum
CPD Forum
SQA -ESOL Units in a Community Setting?
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone delivers any of the SQA ESOL units in a community setting? What units do you use and how do you assess? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated :-)
Avril Morrison
In Inverclyde we have delivered all the 'old' units - access 2 - Higher etc and now we can deliver National 2 - 4 and we have recently put several learners through the ESOL: Preparation for Literacy qualification in order for them to progress to the local college.
Hi Avril,
Yes,we* do all the units too.
Which levels are you looking at? We're currently working on simplifying the assessment packs to make things clearer for our assessors. Happy to send you them if that helps.
Cheers,
Justin
*Edinburgh College, Community-based ESOL
Hi Lisa,
That's interesting to know, how do you assess the old units, do your learners sit an exam or can you do it by portfolio?
How does offering National2-4 qualifications work in the community, do all your learners start in September and sit an exam in May?
I've seen the ESOL literacy support materials on the SQA website, but I'm not sure what course code they link to? Ideally we'd like to offer something similar to a Core Skill, that learners can start at any time and we can evidence by portfolio, but I'm not sure if that is possible?
Avril
Hi Avril,
we deliver N2 through N4. The majority of our learners are N2 level but we also offer classes at N3 and N4. For N2 we do the assessments ourselves, for N3 and N4 we prepare the students but they have the assessment performed at the local college. Although we prefer students to join at the start of a term, we are fairly flexible. We also don't tend to offer the SQA qualification to the majority of out students as we have found that most of them don't have a great interest in a qualification, more just learning the language for work and social purposes.
We assessed 10 people on the HA1R 72 - Preparation for Literacy, earlier this year and 8 students went to the local college and were assessed for ESOL SQA N3.
For the preparation for literacy we used the materials that SQA provides on their website, along with One Stop English materials and various materials from New English File and Upper Headway.
Hope this helps.