Our employability hub, Reach, helps people from all walks of life and over the last few months, we’ve been supporting members of the Afghan community, who are based in Speke.
In partnership with Speke Training and Education Centre (STEC), B-Skill and South Liverpool Youth Hub, a group of adults enrolled onto the Functional Maths and English qualification course to receive educational support, as they transition into life in the UK.
We caught up with two of the students, Shabaa and Khatera, who have been visiting Reach, to get an understanding of their education and career history in their home country and find out how they’ve found the course.
Shabaa’s story
Shabaa is 26 and has been in the UK for nine months. She is originally from Afghanistan. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
STEC visited the hotel and told people about the courses. I started the Functional Maths and English course because I want to work in the same field as I did in my country - I worked in a bank for two years in Afghanistan. It was a branch of one of the main banks in the country. I am working towards getting a job in a bank in the UK.
The team have helped me a lot, helped me to understand the education system in the UK. The course is two days a week and takes place at Reach. I can speak English already, but there are others who are doing a four-day course to learn more and improve their English.
We’re not sure where we will remain, some of my family have gone to London so I’m not sure where we will end up, but I want to finish the course to begin applying for jobs.
Khatera's story
Khatera is 32 years old. She's moved to the UK with her husband and two children.
I have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, and I worked as a teacher of Mathematics and English. I taught in two schools - Computer Science in a private school and Maths in a public school.
I’m enjoying it, but I've only took part in one class so far. I took a diagnostics test and was matched with this course. My English is okay. I was better at it when I graduated university but it’s like anything – if you don’t use it, you lose it!
I taught children and adults. I taught year 9 mathematics, year 12 English and computer science in a boy's school to years 5 and 6.
My oldest boy is 8 and my youngest is nearly 2. My children have settled okay here – my eldest is in school but I like to be at home with my two-year-old while he’s young.
I want to go back to teaching when I complete the course. I want to learn more about computer science or IT to teach those subjects or teach Maths again – that’s why I chose the Functional Skills course.
Find out more
To find out more about Reach, our facilities and how we can help you, get in touch with us. Visit us in Parklands library, Speke – our doors are open Monday to Friday, 9.30am - 3.30pm or drop us an email for more information on how we can work together [email protected].