West London English School supporting charity RefuAid

In early 2020, Ealing-based West London English School was approached by the charity RefuAid to ask whether they’d be interested in helping refugees resume careers and education in the UK

The school’s management, led by its owner Asif Musa, accepted this invitation without hesitation. RefuAid supports refugees to access a range of services, including language tuition and employment opportunities, and this partnership was a way for WLES to put further into practice its mission to be an active part of the community.

Initially, the school sought to offer RefuAid’s students places on its face-to-face exam preparation courses. Like most schools, Covid-19 forced WLES to close its doors for face-to-face teaching in early 2020. However, the small but motivated team were undeterred, and created some self-study packages to prepare students for the Occupational English Test, a medical English exam, that could be accessed online. Through these self-study packages, the school has offered free tuition to over 90 refugees since the partnership began.

In a recent interview WLES’s Director of Studies, David Ellul, talked about the pride that WLES takes in this achievement. Although the nature of the self-study packages means that the school doesn’t always get to meet the students in person, David says that “students who kept in touch were very grateful and we are happy to see them progress to the next stage of their career.”

The ongoing collaboration with RefuAid has been a rewarding experience for the school, and this summer alone they accepted 30 more refugees from the charity. In an increasingly volatile world, David Ellul says that

Sometimes it’s easy to feel helpless when watching the news out of the countries where these refugees come from. However, through partnering with charities like RefuAid, schools can make a tangible difference by helping refugees take back agency, achieve their goals and get on with life.

Find out more about BETA member West London English School here

Published 05 December 2022