ESF-Works

ATLAS Scotland - Action for Training and Learning for Asylum Seekers

Logo for ATLAS Scotland - Action for Training and Learning for Asylum Seekers

Description

learning for asylum seekers

Aim

The aim of the ATLAS Development Partnership (DP) was to contribute towards an employment strategy for asylum seekers through a partnership approach, and to develop a model which added value to the UK dispersal policy by ensuring a holistic response in Scotland to the needs of the target group.

Background

In 2001, Glasgow City Council (GCC) signed a contract with the Home Office to take asylum seekers. The Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) realised that the subsequent increase in the number of asylum seekers entering the city created a need for more work on integration of asylum seekers into the host community. SRC were, however, unable to take the lead role in the DP, so GCC became the lead partner. The DP created and tested new ways to improve training and learning for asylum seekers, as a means of integrating them into the host community.

Target Groups

Aslyum Seekers

Main Outcomes

  • GCC have mainstreamed all activities into the main council budget. 
  • CAB have gained Scottish Executive funding for their projects. 
  • The British Red Cross are developing their programmes into Round 2. This will included producing a magazine written by and for asylum seekers.  
  • The Toryglen orientation programme has been unable to secure funding. 
  • SRC have mainstreamed into their normal funds.

Round

1

Lead partner

Glasgow City Council >>
www.glasgow.gov.uk >>

Core partners

Anniesland College >>
British Red Cross (Glasgow) >>
Cardonald College >>
Central College of Commerce >>
Citizens Advice Scotland >>
Ethnic Minority Enterprise Centre >>
Fife College >>
Fife Council >>
Glasgow Alliance >>
Glasgow College of Food Technology >>
Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector >>
Glasgow ESOL Forum >>
Glasgow Film Theatre >>
Glasgow North Ltd >>
Glasgow YMCA >>
Glasgow YWCA >>
Greater Govan Social Inclusion Partnership >>
Institute of Contemporary Scotland >>
Integrating Toryglen Community >>
Langside College >>
Oxfam (Glasgow) >>
Rosemount Lifelong Learning >>
Save the Children (Scotland) >>
Scotish Enterprise Glasgow (Atrium Court) >>
Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) >>
Scottish Refugee Council >>
Stow College >>
Street Level >>
The Initiative (formerly known as Gorbals) >>
The Wise Group >>
University of Glasgow >>
Woscop >>

Transnational partnerships

Information for Transnational partnerships

Contact

Dawn Corbett
Glasgow City Council
atlaspartnership@glasgow.gov.uk >>

End-dates

Action 2: 31 December 2004
Action 3: 14 November 2005

Equal theme

Asylum seekers

Beneficiaries

Asylum seekers

Achievements

The work of the ATLAS-funded projects in assisting with the integration of asylum seekers formed a full Appendix to the Scottish Executive Refugee Integration Forum Action Plan – Progress Report (2005), demonstrating significant progress for ATLAS in gaining recognition at Scottish Executive level and that our work forms part of the implementation of national asylum seeker integration policy in Scotland.

ATLAS projects have helped established communities to directly meet asylum seekers through work-based, education, cultural and advocacy projects, and through organising an inclusive conference ‘Asylum Matters for Scotland’. This work has made a significant contribution to the growing acceptance in Scotland (reflected in the SRIF Action Plan Progress Report, above) that integration is a two-way process of mutual adaptation.

Atlas projects have helped to get emerging issues for asylum seekers on to the national agenda (access to mainstream further and higher education, accreditation of prior learning, promoting the benefits of diversity at work), notably through New Roots Scotland, a new body led by Bridges Programmes and including the Scottish Refugee Council, colleges and universities, which grew out of an ATLAS work group

Final report

Download final report >> (2.1 MB)

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Connections

Activities and products

Activity
Accreditation and Employment Skills >>Anniesland College piloted an Accreditation of Prior Education and Learning (APEL) model as a form of fast track accreditation for asylum seekers who had previously worked as motor vehicle mechanics.


Activity
Asylum Positive Images Project >>The project has conducted extensive media monitoring research in conjunction with Glasgow Caledonian University.Expand/collapse Products (2)


Activity
Baseline Study of Asylum Seekers Household >>This project was designed to complement an update of a 1998 North Glasgow baseline survey of residents and businesses commissioned by North Glasgow Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP).Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Capacity Building for Careers Advisers >>Glasgow North Ltd and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow Social Justice Transition Team took on a piece of action-based research to address a gap in the provision of guidance to asylum seekers and refugees from highly skilled / professional backgrounds.


Activity
Capacity Building Project >>‘Awareness-raising’ workshops to highlight the problems faced by asylum seekers arriving in Scotland were delivered by staff members with input from ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) teachers and, in some cases, by asylum seeker students.


Activity
Citizenship Project >>Asylum seekers who were studying at the Central College of Commerce expressed a wish to learn more about British/Scottish life and culture.


Activity
Education and Employment Worker >>Whilst waiting for a decision on their claim for refugee status, asylum seekers need information about the employment market and training opportunities to enable them to be ‘job ready’ should their claim be successful.


Activity
ESOL Framework Project >>In the space of eight months in 2004, 1204 candidates obtained the new ESOL qualifications and 157 practitioners received training.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Glasgow Asylum Seekers Support Project (GASSP) >>GASSP appointed an Information and Advice Worker to provide specialist information and support in community based settings across the whole of Glasgow, and to increase the capacity of local centres to provide improved levels of support.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Glasgow Guide and Orientation Service >>This project aimed to provide a holistic volunteering project to meet the short term needs of asylum seekers who required assistance with orientation, advice and support.Expand/collapse Products (2)


Activity
Going Global 2: New Citizens >>Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) developed a successful education pack, Going Global, in 2003 aimed at raising awareness of asylum issues amongst schoolchildren.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Literacy Project >>The key activity of the project has been the development of new ESOL and literacy support materials for non-literate ESOL learners.


Activity
National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) Qualifications Comparability Orientation >>To help refugee teachers to quickly access routes to employment, there was a need to increase asylum seeking teachers’ access to accreditation and requalification so that they could obtain a post quickly once eligible to work.


Activity
Northside Community Radio >>Northside Community Radio was a community-led radio project that secured a one month licence to broadcast in North Glasgow, an area with a relatively high number of asylum seekers.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Peer Advocacy Pilot Project >>The Peer Advocacy Project recruited refugees and asylum seekers as volunteers and offered them training to prepare them to be advocates.


Activity
Pilot Orientation and Integration Project >>Asylum seekers living in Toryglen were experiencing difficulties in accessing the right kind of information and advice.


Activity
Save the Children Fund (SCF) >>Due to Scotland having a different legal, political and institutional framework to the rest of the UK, there was some uncertainty amongst practitioners, agencies and asylum seeker parents and young people as to the rights and responsibilities of children and young asylum seekers or refugees.


Activity
Street Level >>During a Street Level research project undertaken at the YMCA in Red Road, a refugee participant expressed an interest in running creative workshops within a new community resource at the YMCA.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Volunteer Tutor Project >>The placing of trained tutors in community settings was greatly enhanced by strong partnerships built with community based organisations including Rosemount Lifelong Learning, Maryhill CAB and Oasis Womens Group.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Printable document
An Anti-Racist Curriculum for Glasgow: A PSD Approach for Primary Schools >>Glasgow Film Theatre have developed a fully interactive DVD featuring young asylum seekers.


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