From welcome to work: building a pathway from English classes to leadership
By Michael Gladwell, Managing Director of Upbeat Clean and Founder of Derby Language School
When Sara arrived in Derby, she spoke very little English. Even everyday things, such as understanding numbers and paying in a shop, could feel overwhelming.
She began attending English classes with Upbeat Communities, where she found friendship, practical help and people who cared about her family. She described Upbeat as being like a second family.
Sara later applied for her first UK job with Upbeat Clean. She excelled and, after only nine months, was promoted. She is now one of our eight Cleaning Managers, helping to lead our team and deliver an excellent service to our clients.
Most importantly, she can support her family and has regained her independence and confidence.
As Sara puts it:
“Before this job I was waiting at home. This gives me independence. I can buy my kids what they need. This makes me happy and confident again.”
Her story captures something we have learned over many years: English is incredibly important, but it is rarely the whole journey.
English, community and belonging
Upbeat Communities has supported refugees and people seeking asylum since 2005. We have taught English to thousands of individuals over the past five years.
Our classes have never been only about grammar and vocabulary. People can share lunch, make friends and find help with the challenges of rebuilding life in the UK. For someone who has left behind their home, career, extended family and support networks, that sense of belonging can be as important as anything taught in the classroom.
Yet this work, particularly English provision for people seeking asylum, can be difficult to fund consistently. This led us to think entrepreneurially.
A language school that funds English classes
Our first social enterprise was Derby Language School, which has now been running for 12 years.
The school provides high-quality language tuition to individuals, businesses and other organisations. It operates as a professional language school, but the profit it generates goes back into Upbeat Communities and helps fund free English classes for people seeking asylum.
Over 12 years, Derby Language School has generated hundreds of thousands of pounds for the charity. This unrestricted income can fund English provision where no other support is available.
From learning English to finding work
As people progressed through our classes, we saw another gap. Improving someone’s English did not mean that an employer would give them their first opportunity.
Refugees can face a lack of UK experience and professional networks, overseas qualifications not being recognised and working patterns that are difficult to balance with childcare. These barriers can be particularly significant for refugee women.
In 2021, we launched Upbeat Clean as a practical response.
Upbeat Clean is a commercial cleaning company owned by Upbeat Communities. It pays the Real Living Wage and combines training, flexible employment and supportive management with high expectations of quality and reliability.
It was important that Upbeat Clean became an excellent cleaning company. Our clients need clean buildings, reliable staff and managers who take responsibility. The business has grown because our team provides a high-quality service, not because customers feel sorry for us.
Our colleagues are capable, hardworking people with enormous potential. What has often been missing is the first opportunity to show it.
We have made nine internal promotions, with people progressing from their first UK job into supervisory and management positions. Social mobility is not simply a few hours of entry-level work. It is the opportunity to develop, lead others and help shape the organisation.
Turning cleaning budgets into social impact
Upbeat Clean works with many of Derby’s best-known organisations, including the University of Derby, Vaillant, Derby Museums, QUAD and Vaillant Live.
These organisations already needed cleaning. By choosing Upbeat Clean, they can spend their whole cleaning budget with a charity-owned company that provides an excellent service while creating life-changing employment. They do not need to use an additional charitable budget. They simply spend existing money in a way that has a greater impact.
The award meant a huge amount because it recognised the excellence and leadership of our team. People who could have been defined by what they had fled were instead recognised by the King for what they were achieving.
Upbeat Clean now employs around 80 people, the majority from refugee backgrounds. During our fifth year, we will pay more than £1 million in Real Living Wage salaries and pensions to our team.
That money goes into family homes. It means rent paid, food on the table, children having what they need and people making their own choices.
Taking the model into other cities
We now want to make this opportunity available beyond Derby. We are franchising Upbeat Clean in partnership with local refugee charities and social enterprises. Our first franchise has launched in Tees Valley, with other cities in development. Rather than creating a distant national company, we want to equip trusted local organisations with the brand, systems, training and support to build successful cleaning businesses. They already know their communities and can create local pathways from welcome and English learning into Real Living Wage work and leadership.
Seeing the whole journey
For those of us involved in English provision, there is an important question: what happens to people after our classes?
An English class may be the first place where someone feels safe and welcome. It might help them speak to their child’s teacher, visit the doctor independently or make their first friend in a new city. But who will offer them their first opportunity to work? Who will recognise the skills they already have and help them progress?
No organisation can provide every part of that journey alone. English providers, charities, employers and social enterprises need to work together so the different parts connect.
Derby Language School creates sustainable income to fund free English classes. Upbeat Clean creates a route from community and learning into employment, independence and leadership. Together with Upbeat Communities, they allow us to support people through more of their journey.
Our experience is that refugees do not lack talent, determination or ambition. Often, they need somebody to welcome them, believe in them and open the first door.
When that happens, people like Sara do far more than walk through it. They excel, become leaders and begin opening doors for others.
Find out more about Upbeat
Discover how Upbeat Communities supports refugees and people seeking asylum through English language learning and community support, and how Upbeat Clean creates pathways into employment, career progression and leadership. Click to:
