BRASS is concentrating some of its efforts in providing informal English classes for refugees and asylum seekers living in Bolton.
Priority is being given for the time being for enabling refugees and those on spouse visas with permission to work the opportunity to improve their spoken and written English up to a level that would be acceptable for prospective employers. Our previous experience has been that employers, particularly but not exclusively in the private sector, are unwilling to employ people with an insufficient level of English.
To that end, BRASS is currently running, in conjunction with other ENGLISH CLASSES classes, a class specifically aimed at this group of people in order to get them "job ready". Currently, we have a class size of 8 from the 21 eligible refugees and those on spouse visas to achieve that aim.
In addition, BRASS holds similar English classes for all other categories from the refugee and asylum seeker community. These classes are designed to improve the prospect of volunteering opportunities for both refugees and asylum seekers, including those whose application has been refused.
There are volunteering opportunities for anyone wishing to help us on this project