Press Release
The Town Hall recruits British volunteers to teach English to the unemployed
The courses coordinated by CREAMA began today with 75 students.
Javea. Monday, 26 September 2011. The Department of Economic Development and Department of Foreign Residents have joined forces to continue with the English language courses for the unemployed in Javea, despite budget cuts. On the morning of Monday 26th September, the Town Hall signed a collaboration agreement with CREAMA, the “Consortium for Economic Recovery and Activity in the Marina Alta”, by which the Town Hall offers to this agency a group of 14 volunteer native teachers to provide English courses at different levels for 75 students who have already enrolled. CREAMA is responsible for providing material and coordinating between students and teachers.
According to Oscar Antón, the Councillor responsible for relations with residents, the project is a pioneer programme in which the Ayuntamiento uses the potential of residents of all nationalities. The teachers are mostly native Britons who have made themselves available to the programme for free and whose only reward will be, “the gratification of being able to help the unemployed of their town.”
The staff of the Foreign Residents Office was in charge of locating volunteer teachers from among their contact lists and through advertisements in the British press. The many volunteers that came forth were tested for a minimum knowledge of Spanish that would be required to communicate with the students. The Foreign Residents Office also designed the curriculum, providing the course material and a schedule for classes covering basic, intermediate and advanced.
Antón described the initiative as an example of integration and collaboration of foreign residents with their fellow neighbours, expressing his hope that the experience would be rewarding for both parts. The mayor of Javea José Chulvi, who expressed to the students his hope that this learning programme would help them to enter the job market, shared this idea. For his part, Juan Luis Cardona, the Councillor for Economic Development, thanked the cooperation of volunteers and stressed the importance of English language learning, both for obtaining higher qualification in all economic sectors, as well as for personal development.
Lastly, the CEO of CREAMA, Lola Orihuel, explained that all the students would be issued with a certificate of hours in training, but added, “the important thing is that this training will increase their employability”. Orihuel thanked all of those who had offered to cooperate with the Administration for the benefit of others who will be “better prepared to face the future”, a future in which “English is the great challenge”.
The course started on Monday 26th September and will last for 60 hours. The agreement between the Ayuntamiento and CREAMA will continue depending on the demand and the availability of teachers. Depending on the success, the Administration will consider whether to export the formula into other languages.