Students Seeking Sanctuary

Yes – if you have been in the country for more than 6 months, and you have no study restrictions applied to your stay in the UK, then Essential Skills courses like Maths and English are free to study. 

16–19-year-old learners: We are committed to getting Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and children with refugee status into college as quickly as possible, to avoid further disruption to their education. We accept enrolments throughout the academic year across curriculum where places are still available, and into specialised ESOL courses where necessary. 

For our adult learners wanting to study – we encourage you to come to our main enrolment session in August, as places on our ESOL courses can quickly fill up. Where places are still available, we accept enrolments all year round. 

If our Adult ESOL classes are full, we will take your information and add you to our waitlist, where you will receive information about other English learning opportunities in the area, and other short courses/boot camps available at Carlisle College. If you are on our waitlist, you will be notified of future enrolment sessions for the next academic year. 

16–19-year-old learners: You will be entered onto a full-time course of study – this will be at least 21 hours per week, usually spread out across 3 days of college. 

Adult learners: Your study hours depend on your level, and the class you choose, but usually you are entered for 1-3 classes a week.

For adult learners, we do have some evening classes available at certain levels. Enquire about classes to find out whether we offer evening classes at your current level. 

When you enrol for ESOL, we will ask you to complete some initial assessments in reading, writing, and speaking, to make sure we place you in the correct class that is suited to your level. But these tests are informal, and not under exam conditions. You can’t fail, so don’t worry!