Home tutors wanted for refugees
“Enriching” is the word Netty Butler uses to describe the experience of helping former refugees learn English.
Butler will be running English Language Partners’ Nelson home tutor training course for volunteers to help adult refugees with language skills and social support.
The not-for-profit group is seeking more enrolments for the next 25-hour course, starting on March 7. The free training sessions cover refugees' backgrounds, adults as learners and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teaching skills, with guest speakers giving first-hand experience of their journeys and settlement in New Zealand.
Tutors receive an NZQA level 3 certification after completing course requirements and have access to a library of teaching materials.
Butler took the course herself in 2022, and was matched with two former refugees from Myanmar and Colombia.
“They were very special women, mothers of young children, who looked after me and made me feel very much part of the family.
“They are all just so determined to get on and to become part of the place.”
Butler said the programme helped equip learners with the confidence to have conversations, and to say they did not understand something. As well as language practice, it helped refugees navigate other challenges in their new home, from shopping to libraries.
English Language Partners Nelson home tutor co-ordinator Barb Lawson said the programme had been operating in Nelson-Tasman for about 35 years. In 2023 there were 60 volunteer home tutors working with 106 learners.
Nelson is one of 13 refugee resettlement centres in New Zealand and this year is expecting new refugees from Colombia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Myanmar.
Lawson said the learners had a range of English levels and needs.
“Some have virtually no English at all, others go on to study at NMIT or go to work. Learners with lower levels, who don’t have other English tuition and who can’t afford to pay for English lessons, are our priority.”
Volunteer tutors spend one to two hours each week with a learner, helping them with their English language needs in their own homes.
“It’s extremely rewarding for both learners and tutors, enriching relationships are formed and lifelong friendships made,” Lawson said.
If becoming a volunteer home tutor interests you and you’re keen to undertake the March 7 training course please email Barb Lawson barb. lawson@ englishlanguage. org. nz and visit www.englishlanguage.org.nz