Education (English language and cultural learning)

International Recruitment: Education – English language and Cultural Learning

In this section education in its widest form is covered. It includes the education of your new international worker and their training. Training is often cited as the second most important factor, apart from housing, to successfully recruiting an international worker. You will have a standard induction and training programme for all your workers, including the Care Certificate and this site assumes that is already in place.

Cultural Learning

During their induction and prior to arrival you may wish to provide information on learning about British and local cultures. It will take time for them to learn about their new neighbourhood, get used to British food, understand local accents and words and could suffer a real culture shock on arrival unless they are prepared.

This learning will help your new international recruit understand the people they will be working with and assimilate into your staff team. Subjects you could include are:

The history and culture of the UK.
How to navigate British Culutre - Edvoy.com
Different religions and beliefs of the people they will be working with. It may be helpful for them to learn that the UK’s official religion is Christianity and churches of all denominations can be found throughout the south including Catholic, Protestant,
Baptist and Methodist. The main other religions of which they might need to be aware are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism.
British food such as: Fish and chips, Full English breakfasts, Sunday roasts and a cup of tea.
Providing information about local events and festivals they could attend.

You can also find local groups, community events and activities on the following websites:

Portsmouth

www.hiveportsmouth.org.uk/hive-directory/

Isle of Wight

islefindit.org.uk

Southampton

www.solinked.org.uk/

www.southampton.gov.uk/people-places

Hampshire

www.connecttosupporthampshire.org.uk/

The Role of the Buddy/Mentor

Your international worker’s buddy could also act as a cultural informant, helping the person to overcome challenges settling outside of the workplace and learning more about life in the community. Over time, many mentoring relationships can grow into personal friendships, and such a friendship is a good way to help you retain new international talent.

The following links may be useful to you to help form a structure with the new recruit:

www.skillsforcare.org.uk/how-mentoring-has-helped

www.bustle.com/best-mentorship-schemes-in-the-uk

www.tpchealth.com/coaching-and-mentoring

Social Care Practice

During their induction period it would be useful for your international worker to learn about the history, and systems of UK social care to help them settle and understand our culture and practice.

Safeguarding for example is an area of complexity and the new recruit should have a good understanding of policies and procedures as they may be very different from those in their own country.

Some learning, information and reading resources can be found in the following links:

National

Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)

www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Home.aspx

Portsmouth

www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/health-and-care/adult-social-care/

Hampshire

www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth

Southampton

www.southampton.gov.uk/adult-social-care/

Isle of Wight

www.iow.gov.uk/housing-and-adult-social-care

Colleges

There are colleges across Hampshire offering learning, short and longer term courses in Social Care. Alternatively, your organisation may offer apprenticeships and/or other qualifications that the recruit would want to access to further learning. These are the links to local college courses and there are many online apprenticeship providers.

Portsmouth

www.city-of-portsmouth-college.ac.uk

Hampshire

Alton College: www.hsdc.ac.uk

Andover College: www.andover.ac.uk

Basingstoke College: www.bcot.ac.uk/subject-areas

Eastleigh College: www.eastleigh.ac.uk/adult-learning/care/

Fareham College: www.fareham.ac.uk

Farnborough College: www.farn-ct.ac.uk/courses

Havant College: www.hsdc.ac.uk/course-finder

Sparsholt College: www.sparsholt.ac.uk

Southampton

Totton College: https://www.totton.ac.uk/apprenticeships-health-social-care/

Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight College: www.iwcollege.ac.uk