Interpreting the future

It’s Saturday lunchtime and in a building on Wilder Street in St Paul’s, a dozen adult learners are discussing today’s lesson with their tutor, Lidia Morejudo. She has been teaching courses in community interpreting here at WEA’s Bristol headquarters since launching in May 2017, and is now helping her latest crop of students, who hail from across the globe, to earn a qualification.

The courses – the only ones of their kind currently running in Bristol – help speakers of other languages to understand the role of the interpreter and its code of professional ethics. Many of the learners come through Bristol Refugee Rights, a charity based at the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul’s, thanks to a partnership with education providers WEA. Together, they are working together to formalise skills that are already being used.

Learners on the course are often already using their language skills to help others in their community

“There’s a vast pool of untapped energy and skills within refugee and asylum seeker populations,” says Tom Daly, community engagement manager at Bristol Refugee Rights. “It’s the chance to do useful, meaningful work and that’s really great. It’s a progressive way to integrate and find a role in a new place.

“People in diaspora communities put in the time to support others with lower English skills in places like GP’s surgeries and job centres all the time. It’s happening unrecorded across the city and it’s great to record it, value and accredit it.”

Tom and his team approached Kathryn Whitehead, education co-ordinator at WEA. “As an education provider, my role is to put on courses in the community and to be flexible to the needs of that community,” she says. “Once learners have a qualification, it’s a ticket into work. It sets people up on that professional pathway.

“Most people come to us with a bit of volunteer experience and want to take on more volunteering work, beyond somewhere familiar like Bristol Refugee Rights. It’s good for them to be able to say they did interpreting somewhere else, like a school or a private organisation. Some people have done interpreting in a paid capacity in their own countries, so the goal is to get them into professional interpreting in the UK.”

Lidia Morejudo teaches the class at WEA’s headquarters in St Paul’s

Esam is one of the learners on the course. He speaks four languages and previously volunteered as a community interpreter for charity Borderlands, starting the level one interpreting course around a year ago. As a refugee seeking indefinite leave to remain he cannot currently undertake paid work, but sees the course as a way to secure a future in this country as soon as he is able. “It’s a really good way to prepare people like us,” he says as the Saturday class winds up. “When you get permission to work, you can stand on your feet.

“It’s good for British society. I can be a useful person. Most asylum seekers are young and that is a useful power. Most are engineers or doctors or businessmen – things they used to do in their home country – and can learn English quickly and study.

“We’re quick to help with the economy and not be a load. We have to feel safe and live here, so the community interpreter courses and other skilled courses are good for us to be qualified and help us help ourselves.”

Find out about all the courses run in Bristol by WEA by calling 0117 916 6500 or by emailing southwest@wea.org.uk