Working in the UK screen industries with English as a second or other language (ESOL)

As part of the Your Life at Work strand, we're offering training aimed at sharing workplace best practice as well as how you and your teams can stay healthy, happy, and productive at work. 

The screen industries benefit greatly from a diverse workforce who can draw on many different cultural and language experiences. However, it can be challenging to work in a UK TV/ film team if English is not your first language. This course is for anyone with English as a second or other language (ESOL) and will focus on:

• appreciating the language used when working in the screen industries 
• approaches to communicate effectively with others and fully participate at work
• valuing everyone’s linguistic and cultural knowledge as part of a diverse team 
• understanding your rights with regards to linguistic diversity and inclusion

To help tailor the content of the session, we will gather questions from participants in advance and ask people with English as a second/ other language to share any prior experiences of working in the UK screen industries.

The session will start at 9:30 and end at 11:30. There will be a break half way through and the room will be open from 9:15 for anyone wanting to test their connection/ chat with others before the session starts.  To actively participate, you will need access to a webcam and microphone (both of which are often already built into laptops), or you can plug in a headset. 

Who it's for

This course is for anyone who has English as a second or other language (ESOL) including anyone who’s worked in TV or Film and has been displaced and now has the right to work in the UK. It doesn’t matter how fluent you are in English but the course will be led in English.

If English is your first language, this is not the course for you! There is a course about training and being inclusive to ESOL trainees and you can find out about that here.

The majority of the USF online short course offering is for those at early career stage and above. As a result, we generally require applicants to have at least 3 credits (unless working in a traditionally uncredited role). If you strongly feel you would still benefit from the training, please email USF@screenskills.com so we can assess if an exception should be made.

We are committed to ensuring all our courses are accessible to everyone. This course is designed to be as interactive as possible. Please email the above address if you have any access requirements and we will be delighted to help, be that clarifying the form such interaction is likely to take or discussing reasonable adjustments.

Speaker

Claire is a PGCE-qualified teacher (ESOL, Adult Literacy and English), a qualified teacher educator (Masters level) and has a Masters in Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL. Claire has research interests in multiliteracies and learning and is the production Editor for the Research and Practice in Adult Literacies (RaPAL) Journal. 

Chloë is a qualified ESOL lecturer with QTLS and ATS. Specialist areas include EdTech contemporary arts, drama, ESOL and English. Chloë is dedicated to ongoing practitioner research into digital approaches. Chloe is NATECLA NW chair and mentor for ScreenSkills.

How to apply

This session will take place online via Zoom. Click ‘apply now’ at the top of the page and follow the instructions to apply for your place: you must login or register before you are able to complete your application.

If you need additional support to complete your application or require the application form in an alternative format please contact USF@screenskills.com

Places on these free online courses are limited and applications are often highly competitive. To stand the best chance of securing a place, please be sure to consider the following:

• When asked to list your three most recent credits, please include the programme title and your job role.
• When asked what you hope to gain from the course, please be concise but ensure you cover the specific elements of the topic you would like to gain knowledge of and what gaps in your skillset you believe the course may address. A rewording of the course title or a general comment on career progression does not tell us much about how this course would benefit you.

If you are no longer able to attend, we ask you to please use the “decline ticket” function on the right hand side of the page so that we can release your place. Our sessions are often oversubscribed, so we’d like to give other freelancers the opportunity to fill available spots. Thank you for your consideration.

This course is supported by ScreenSkills, by the Unscripted TV Skills Fund thanks to contributions from broadcasters, SVoDs and production companies.

This course would normally cost participants to attend, but thanks to this support, we are able to offer it to you for free. If you fail to attend, we reserve the right to request reimbursement of costs, unless your place can be taken by someone else.