Cleaners working at Middlesex University have been benefiting from ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes thanks to UNISON Learning Reps.

The ESOL course was set up by the UNISON Middlesex University branch to support cleaners working for contractor ISS at the university as part of their Living Wage for Cleaners campaign. The classes were delivered by a tutor from CoNEL (the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London) and the learning is set to continue and hopefully expand in the future.

Maddie Taylor is a UNISON Fighting Fund Local Organiser and, along with Branch Secretary Claire Mitham, did the ground work to set up the classes - assisted by local UNISON ISS reps.

Maddie first organised the ESOL classes by arranging a meeting with Malcolm Seward from CoNEL and Alwyn Reid, a tutor to talk about what they would like the classes to cover, how long the classes would go on for, when they would start and what was needed to set the classes up. 

After this initial meeting, Claire and Maddie decided on the best date for the classes to start, and created posters to let the members know this information. They also asked colleagues to translate the posters into Spanish and Portuguese so that most of the cleaners would be able to understand them. 

Claire and Maddie distributed the posters and spoke to the ISS reps about letting their members know about the classes.

Maddie said:

I attended the first session and told the class the benefits of being part of UNISON, such as the ESOL classes, and those who were not already members signed up there and then. Claire and I dropped into other lessons after this to see how the members were progressing, and we had between 10-15 members in each class.

I must say that their progress has been amazing and Claire and I are very proud of them."

UNISON held a graduation for those who took their tests, and the members expressed an interest into progressing to the next level. 

Since then other members who did not attend the first round of classes have expressed interest in taking part in the beginning level, and Maddie will be meeting the provider to discuss running the beginners class again – as well as exploring the next level for those who would like to progress.

Clair Hawkins, Learning and Workforce Development Officer with UNISON, said:

I am delighted by the success of this ESOL course organised by UNISON’s Middlesex University branch. The classes have made a real difference to our members’ confidence and ability to speak up.

I really want to congratulate Maddie Taylor and Claire Mitham for making it happen, and our UNISON ISS reps and members for their commitment to learning. The success of these classes is down to great local negotiation and support for learning.

The classes also demonstrate the strong link between learning and organising as they came out of UNISON’s local Living Wage for cleaners campaign."

The courses have been so successful that the union is planning to write some guidance notes for organisers, reps and branches interested in setting up ESOL classes in their workplace and will be using the example of Middlesex University to highlight how it can be done.

UNISON have also filmed Maddie, Claire, the ISS contract manager, the tutor, two UNISON ISS reps and some UNISON members/ESOL learners  and will use the film to further promote setting up more workplace ESOL classes.