Our Vision & Aims

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Strategic Plan 2018-2023

Our strategy sets the overall direction for the organisation and acts as a framework for all that we do. It lays out 8 organisational objectives and related outcomes for the next 3 years. You can read the full document here

Our work and services

  1. Work with 400 adult ESOL learners a year who benefit from diverse, accessible and welcoming ESOL provision. All delivery is informed by current policies and practices.
  2. Strengthen our ability to be an initial point of information and advice for potential ESOL learners and stakeholders
  3. Develop ways to engage hard-to-reach learners and respond to specific ESOL community needs
  4. Identify and implement effective frameworks for quality assurances of all provision

A strong presence and influential role

  1. Increase stakeholder consultation and participation to inform and shape our work
  2. Develop and maintain strong links at strategic level in Glasgow and Scotland within ESOL networks and the wider adult learning context, whilst increasing the profile of the organisation

Our organisation is strong and fit for purpose

  1. Develop infrastructure to support plan and ensure our working environment is suitable
  2. Diversify our income streams to ensure the core of the organisation is sustainable

2023 – How’s it going?

The period 2018 – 2023 turned out to be a turbulent period for us all – who would have known when we wrote our current strategy that we would find ourselves in a global pandemic? We worked hard to counter this and to keep our services to our usual high standard, and as the dust has settled, we have been able to ‘double down’ on our resolve.

Strategy Day

With this in mind, the Board and staff met for a day in June 2023 to start developing some themes for a new strategy that will serve us for the next few years. The sun shone on us at the Maryhill Burgh Halls, and it was an opportunity for Staff and Board to get to know each other, and to bring a mix of skills and experience.

We are excited to let you know that we will be looking to involve our learners in helping us finalise our thinking on our new strategy. It is important that the people who use our services have a say in our future. Ultimately, the Board are responsible for the strategy of the organisation, but they don’t create this in isolation – we are all contributing.

The new strategy isn’t quite ready to share but we can give you a sneak preview of some of the things we have been talking about.

Our core work

Teaching English will remain at the centre of what we do – but we are increasingly realising that the support we provide goes much wider than that. This means we will want to form partnerships with more organisations that can help our learners thrive, and we are looking for ways to further utilise our team’s already extensive knowledge of the pastoral services available in Glasgow. We support language, but we also support lives.

Where we work

Over the years, where we do our teaching has changed. Although the physical presence of a classroom is an important feature of the facilities available, more and more we are offering formal and informal teaching in community settings. We are also providing activities that support learning, as distinct from the learning itself – we took one group of lucky learners on a screen printing course in partnership with PrintClan, for example. Our new strategy therefore is likely to say something about the places we work and reflect on the online platforms we successfully pivoted towards during the pandemic.

Learner voice

We have done a lot of thinking too about our role in helping our learners to have a voice. By teaching English, we hope we help to do that in everyday life. Historically, we have not been an organisation that has taken part in campaigns and advocacy work, but we can see that our experience and the experience of our learners place us in a strong position to do so. We do not see ourselves as a political organisation, but we think we have things to say that are informed and balanced about how we can better become a welcoming Scotland. You might therefore see something a bit more radical in or next strategy.

Stay tuned!

Watch this space for opportunities to have your say and for our new strategy coming later this year!

Address

Red Tree Business Suites
33 Dalmarnock Rd
Bridgeton
Glasgow
G40 4LA

ESOL in the Community Project:

Jaclynne Smith
Development Worker
jaclynne@glasgowsol.org

Volunteer Tutor Project:

Fergus Andrew
Senior Development Worker
fergus@glasgowesol.org

Dinushriya Spybey
Development Worker
dinushriya@glasgowesol.org

Vikki Rowland
Development Worker
vikki@glasgowesol.org

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