My Role
My role at the project has been to teach English. I have been responsible for planning and delivering lessons in General and Hospitality English, primarily in the centre but also in one of the local hotels. This has involved writing schemes of work, production of resources and implementation of assessments. Through this work I have had the opportunity to build good relationships with the students. Currently, I am also acting as the stand-in coordinator because the previous coordinator, Jo, unexpectedly needed to return to England. Within this role I have been responsible for the creation of the Step Ahead Training Centre website and the production of other literature: leaflets, posters, reports, in order to communicate information about the centre to people living in the local area and our supporters. Alongside this I have been responsible for coordinating the team of staff and volunteers currently working here and have been sending out adverts in order to try and increase the size of this team.
One of the privileges of being here has been that through this teaching we have had opportunities to share something of the hope that we have as Christians through what Jesus has done for us. A couple of events that we have organised, one run by a drama group from the Philippines and the other by a worship team from Bangkok, have been well received with a number of students expressing an interest in finding out more I also had the privilege of attending the baptism of one of the students from one of first English classes run by centre. Having seen the drama delivered by the group from the Philippines she became involved in a sowing training course at one of the local churches and, through the people that she met there, started to attend the Sunday gatherings and a mid-week Bible teaching session. She made a decision to accept Jesus into her life and it has been amazing to see the changes in her life as she has been finding out more about God and receiving His joy, peace and hope.
I became involved in the project when it opened for training in May having heard about it from my friend and housemate Jo, who had come out to work here in March and who oversaw the renovation of the building before coordinating the various training programmes. I was excited by its vision and, having just completed my PGCE in Further Education, was in a good position to leave my previous job, teaching Sports Science at Loughborough College, in order to come out and work.