Seven staff at a Norfolk care home who took a twenty hour City & Guilds ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) qualification, were praised by their boss for their achievements.

Seven staff at a Norfolk care home who took a twenty hour City & Guilds ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) qualification, were praised by their boss for their achievements.

Sammi Beck, the manager of Ailwyn Hall care home in Honingham, said, "Their performance at work has changed beyond all recognition. Thanks to this course, their communications skills have all significantly improved and this has greatly enhanced their effectiveness in their roles."

The seven staff took their course in their workplace and learnt with a tutor from City College Norwich, Juyna Lewis.

All seven originate from Southern India and are multilingual in Hindi, Malayalam and some in Tamil - but all needed to improve their English language skills.

City College delivered the training free at the Ailwyn Hall care home, thanks to co-financing by the Learning and Skills Council and the European Union through the European Social Fund.

It was provided as part of a City College project called ESOL in Care and Construction.

Anne Fairweather, the Project Co-ordinator at City College, said, "The Care and Construction industries both have growing numbers of people working in them whose first language is not English. Our project is aimed at small and medium sized businesses in Norfolk and, like Ailwyn Hall, they may be eligible for the training to be provided free. I would be particularly interested to hear from Construction employers who might like to take advantage of this training."

For more information about ESOL in Care and Construction, call Anne Fairweather on 01603 773654 email: afairweather@ccn.ac.uk or Brian Shingler on 01603 773266; email:bshingle@ccn.ac.uk