Human Rights Commission

English Language Partners Wellington is a community not for profit organisation which has operated for over 35 years, servicing the refugee and migrant communities of Wellington. Our mission is to provide English Language skills and social support for effective resettlement of non-English speaking backgrounds adult learners. 

English Language Partners Wellington provides a range of English language tuition and settlement support services for the home, community and workplace settings. There are:

• ESOL Home Tutoring provided by trained volunteer home tutors
• 10 English Language Groups in the community (Kilbirnie, Miramar, Newtown, Strathmore, Karori, Wellington City) which focus on conversation and educational social activities
• English for Employees programme for migrants and refugees who work and hold a permanent residency and would like to improve their English language, literacy and numeracy for the workplace
• Job Mentoring Service which supports highly qualified migrants and refugees to find meaningful employment. The service was established 10 years ago in response to our concern about the high levels of unemployment among skilled migrants and refugees. We acknowledge that employment is a key to successful and effective resettlement and that the job search is a challenging and sometimes prolonged process. A trained volunteer job mentor is matched with a skilled migrant job seeker and supports them one- to- one in their search for meaningful employment.

Each year we provide English language support services to over 600 non-English speaking background adult learners from 46 ethnic groups who settled in Wellington. Most of our learners are single mothers and the older people. 80% of our learners are women, 95% are beginners or post beginners and 17% of them are pre-literate on their own language. Our 350 trained and active volunteers come from over 25 different ethnic backgrounds.

Employment support services are provided to over 90 migrant job seekers by more than 70 trained volunteer job mentors.

English Language Partners Wellington is one of 23 English Language Partners Centres in New Zealand. We are a member of the National Association of English Language Partners – New Zealand’s largest settlement agency which works in partnership with over 8, 000 refugees and migrants and 3,000 volunteers and 280 paid staff.

For more information please visit our website: www.englishlanguage.org.nz

Projects 2012

ESOL Home Tutor Training for Volunteers

We always search for new volunteer home tutors who will be trained and who will provide English language and settlement support to local refugee and migrant communities. Every year we train at least 100 new volunteer home tutors. Training is free and NZQA approved. This is a great professional development opportunity. Information about the training programme is available on our website.

Training for Volunteer Job Mentors

We are always keen to hear from people who are in employment and have knowledge of the work environment in Wellington and New Zealand and who would like to be trained as volunteer job mentors who will support skilled migrant job seekers one-to-one in their search for meaningful employment.

English Language Groups in the community

List of the groups with the start date for the first school term is available from our website or at our office. Priority is given to refugee learners who are isolated socially and geographically and to mothers with young children.  

English for Employees

Migrant and refugees who hold a permanent residency and are in paid employment can register to attend small classes for 25 hours of free English language support. These classes focus on English for the workplace.