European Social Fund in England

Opening doors

Funding type: CFO

CFO: East of England Development Agency

Funding: £375,000

Target Group: Migrant workers, seasonal employees, refugees and groups from European Accession countries

Start date: 01/02/2005

End Date: 30/06/2007

The Opening Doors Project is providing training through to the Diploma in Public Service Interpreting for people who are proficient in two languages.

Delivery is taking place across the East of England through partners in Cambridge, Hemel Hempstead, Ipswich and Norwich.

Each of the partners is a specialist in the field of Interpreting and Translation and share the same ethos of being not for profit and having a strong commitment to the provision of training. These common goals have led to the formation of a Regional Federation that is working closely with EEDA, particularly in their priority area of migrant workers. The Institute of Linguists Diploma exam is the standard expected by more and more statutory agencies when engaging interpreters. The professional qualification students gain through the Opening Doors is a demonstration of their competency and enables them to access employment opportunities.

Mark Mitchell from Dacorum CVS says "We value the opportunity to deliver the project, which is positively benefits the learner, who in turn through putting into practice their learning benefits members of the community facing language barriers."

In the first year of the project, 21 students passed the full Diploma exam and 23 passed units towards the exam. A total of 82 students have been registered to sit the Institute exam in June 2006. The students are from a range of languages, including the more settled communities and those newly migrating from Portugal and Eastern Europe. In addition to the tuition, the classroom setting has played a positive role in building understanding and valuing of the diverse cultures in the region and enabled new friendships to flourish.