Essential Skills

English, Maths, Science & Digital

Adult learning Improving essential skills can bring huge rewards

Achieve a nationally recognised qualification Open doors to employment and further education Feel more confident in your everyday life Support your children with their homework

ACLESSEX.COM 0345 603 7635

Improving lives through learning

LOOKING TO IMPROVE YOUR Essential SKILLS? Not only could you achieve a nationally recognised qualification, you’ll also open up doors to employment and further educational opportunities.

You’ll feel more confident in your everyday activities too, whether helping the kids with their homework, budgeting your finances or using online banking. Courses are suitable for all ability levels. At your assessment our team will agree the best starting point for you and support you to progress through the different levels.

Most maths and English courses are fully funded so you won’t need to pay.

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Improving Lives Through Learning We love hearing about how our learners are benefiting from their studies and reaching their learning goals.

If you have a story to tell or would like to know more about our courses and what you could achieve, please get in touch.

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“I joined this course to learn digita skills. I’ve on l ly had the in ternet at home for a week so it’s still real new. I still ha ly ve a little tr ouble findin my way ar g ound my sm artphone, but everyt hing is mov ing online lik banking and e shopping. Yo u know, all the sort s of things we need especially as an older pe rs on. It was 95-year-old father who br ought me into the 21st century w ith my firs t smartphone !” – Audrey

“I joined the course just for an interest and to brush up my maths skills bu t to the end of the course I fall in love with maths and couldn’t imagine a day witho ut solving some maths problem s on MyMaths website.

Now I am thinking about doing some private tutoring in order to develop my skills fu rther and to practice the sk ills I have already gained.” – Ta nya

ain BIG ay ag s o t have ted all you “I wan r o f py I K YOU m hap a I THAN . s . I for u exams done ll the a d e h rt t e pass o sta have t d r ully orwa hopef d n look f a e – cours gain.” hen a IELTS t u o eet y rner will m ills lea k S l a Digit

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How we support you during your studies We’re committed to supporting our learners during and after their studies. With ACL, you don’t just enrol on a course, you also gain access to a wide range of opportunities that could be free.

Employability & careers Improve your employment prospects to get back into work or move into a new job opportunity. Whatever your previous experience, we can support you to achieve your career goals.

Our courses and apprenticeships will help you develop lifelong skills that will boost your prospects and take you in the previously unexplored directions that could result in exciting new career pathways and opportunities. aclessex.com/get-back-into-work

Mental health & wellbeing We offer the space to explore ways to improve your wellbeing and provide tools to help you navigate everyday life. Our wellbeing courses are there to improve your self-care techniques, boost confidence, and improve your goal setting strategies. aclessex.com/mental-wellbeing

IT/Digital skills Are you, or do you know someone who struggles to use digital technology and would like to be more confident?

We offer Essential Digital Skills courses that will help you complete tasks on a daily basis, saving you time, energy and reducing potentially stressful situations. Gain knowledge and skills whilst using your computer and devices in a home or work environment. We also offer Microsoft Office and Cyber Security courses to help you improve your career prospects and feel more confident. aclessex.com/digital-skills

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Maths & English English and maths play a vital part in our daily lives. Whether applying for a job, helping children with their homework or just reading a newspaper or online article. Our free* English and maths courses will help to blow away the cobwebs, improve your confidence and gain a qualification.

Whatever your reason to improve your English or maths, we can help! Our courses could be free* and start from beginners to GCSEs. You can learn in the classroom or online. aclessex.com/english aclessex.com/maths *FREE to those who do not currently hold a grade C or 4 (or above) in this subject.

Support for all the family If you’re a parent, grandparent or caring for a child or young person in Essex, we have support for you. We offer guided workshops focused on keeping children emotionally well, improving carers’ or parents’ ability to support children’s learning and development, and strengthening family relationships.

Online support Help Hub Full of useful guidance and resources, our online home for support will ensure you have all the necessary tools whilst learning with us.

• • • • • • •

Technical support Financial support Wellbeing support Safeguarding Career advice Frequently asked questions Feedback

We continuously update topics to best meet our learner’s needs.

Please don’t forget to send us your feedback (aclessex.com/ feedback) to let us know about any additional support you require. aclessex.com/help-hub

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DIGITAL SKILLS We have a range of classroombased and online IT courses with suitable starting points for everyone. Courses start all year round with a daytime and evening offer and for some courses, even include Saturday mornings!

LET’S GET DIGITAL BEGINNERS Our Let’s Get Digital course is suitable for those who have very little or no previous knowledge and experience of digital skills. Once completed, the course will have provided you with the foundation skills to move onto the Essential Digital Skills courses.

ESSENTIAL DIGITAL SKILLS The Essential Digital Skills qualifications are based on the national essential digital skills standards covering 5 skill areas: Using devices and handling information, creating and editing, communicating, transacting, being safe and responsible online.

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MICROSOFT OFFICE (ECDL) This course provides a flexible learning opportunity to update, increase or refresh your knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite. Start with the basics (Level 1) or jump straight into the advanced (Level 3) skills within Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

IT SKILLS USING EXCEL (SPREADSHEETS) During this online course you will learn how to enter/delete/find data, basic formatting, analysing data using charts, and ways of sorting your work, save and print options and how to make simple calculations.

IT SKILLS USING WORD During this online course you will learn how to enter/delete and amend text and other characters, change the display of text, enter images such as photos or logos, adjust the page layout including margins and paragraph settings, creating tables, save and print your work and quickly send it off as an email attachment.

CYBER SECURITY In an increasingly digital world, cyber security is fast becoming a main concern for many organisations. With complex online scams and cybercrime, it’s essential that organisations have an understanding of preventative measures to maintain cyber security, including techniques and security checks needed to store data securely.

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S ENGLISH & MATH We offer English and maths courses at varying locations across Essex:

We have various start dates and times available.

English Entry Level and Levels 1 & 2

Once you’ve completed your Initial Assessment and spoken to one of our delivery team, we will agree a start date and time for the course best suited to your individual needs.

This course is for anyone who needs to improve their English skills in their everyday lives and work. You will improve your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and work towards a qualification.

Maths Entry Level and Levels 1 & 2 This course is for anyone who needs to improve their Maths skills in their everyday lives and work. You will improve your calculation, fraction, decimal, percentage and graph skills and work towards a qualification.

If you are a parent, we also offer English and Maths classes as part of our Community & Family Learning Programme. You will receive information on how to gain confidence to support your children’s learning of all things Maths & English for KS1 & KS2.

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To book an assessment: Please visit our website and search for the course title:

aclessex.com Email

lifelong.learning@essex.gov.uk Or call

03330 607 002

AKERS ENGLISH FOR SPE AGES (ESOL) U G N A L R E H T O F O These courses could help you or someone you know who doesn’t use English as a first language to gain employment, progress onto other training courses or just be more confident in communicating with other people.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Let’s Get Digital for ESOL

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I am so proud that my writing skills have improved. It gives me motivation to continue studying English.

GCSE These fast-paced courses will enable you to achieve a GCSE in your chosen subject.

It will support you to improve your career prospects and also allow you to build up your own personal skills.

GCSE’s could also enable you to access Higher Education courses including degree level Apprenticeships.

GCSE pass rate

in Essex (Adult providers 2019-2020)

COMPUTER SCIENCE

MATHS

• GCSE Computer Science

• GCSE Maths Foundation • GCSE Maths Online Self Study Foundation • GCSE Maths Higher

ENGLISH • • • •

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highest overall

GCSE English GCSE English Online GCSE fast-track GCSE online self-study

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SCIENCE • GCSE Biology • GCSE Chemistry

SCIENCE Introduction to Science Find out about scientific methods, and how theories and laws are discovered. Get to know the people who made discoveries and how they changed our world.

You will also have the chance to participate in experiments to see these topics in action.

Access to n Higher Educatio An Access to Higher Education course is a different way of getting to university.

We all take different paths in life and it is never too late to make a change, achieve your goals and reach your potential.

A LEVELS (2 YRS)

Access to HE

(33 weeks)

• Access to HE Social Science • Access to HE Science 11

How to enrol Once you have chosen your course/s, you can either enrol on our website or by phone.

1. Online Visit www.aclessex.com and create an account. You can then either search for the course title using the search box or browse our website.

Once the course has been selected, you will be asked to fill out an enrolment form (non-qualification) or asked to enrol onto an assessment session (qualification).

2. PHONE Call 0345 603 7635 and you will be put through to a member of our customer service team. Before calling, please make a note of the course title or course code.

Our phone lines are open Monday to Friday, from 8:30am to 5pm, unless otherwise stated. aclessex.com/contact-us lifelong.learning@essex.gov.uk ACLEssex

aclcreates

@ACLEssex

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Equality and Diversity ACL is committed to fairness and equality of access, opportunity and outcome for all learners and potential learners. We oppose discrimination in any form and have a commitment to making our courses inclusive and available for all. We positively welcome enrolments from everyone, regardless of age, culture, race, religion/belief and sexual orientation, and actively promote Equality and Diversity across all areas of the service.

Safeguarding We are committed to the safeguarding of all our learners, staff, volunteers and visitors.

We are particularly mindful of specific vulnerable groups although we promote the safety and wellbeing of all members of the ACL community. We want you to feel safe and not threatened by the environment or other people and we have policies and procedures in place to deal effectively with any safeguarding concerns raised.

We ensure all staff are trained and our learners are advised on reporting concerns.

PLEASE NOTE It is always our intention to run our courses as advertised, however if demand is low, they may be postponed or cancelled. Alternative options will be offered in these circumstances. Prices are in line with our fees and charges policy.

For full information, please visit www.aclessex.com/fees-policy