CoCoFe

The CoCoFe project aims to meet the language learning needs of female refugees and female forced migrants working in small scale manufacturing and retail environments. These women they face challenges due to their lack of skills, qualifications and level of language knowledge. One of the biggest obstacles is the understanding of the informal language register used by their co-workers or the community in which they live. Often the language used at work in factories or retail environments is dynamic, full of idioms, neologisms and non-threatening expletives used for group cohesion. Speech acts are initiated differently, politeness varies, as do conversational styles. A lack of language skills can lead to isolation, affect onward mobility in work and society. .

In an attempt to bring migrant and/or refugee women and the local community together, CoCoFe’s objective is to establish a holistic grass-roots self-sustaining web-based platform for low-skilled female refugees, female migrants and local workers, principally females but not exclusively, employed in factories which will establish agency for the female newcomers. It envisages a platform both a web-based e-learning presence and a paper-published book to support women once in work. It seeks to establish a work/partner or mentor/mentee relationship and forge productive relationships, turning both female refugees and mentors into teachers and independent learners. This will be done by establishing a competency- and socio-cultural-based approach to language learning for the women and establish a collaborative digital learning platform.

Eurospeak Language School (UK)
CSI – Center for Social Innovation (CY)
Solution : Solidarité & Inclusion (FR)
LFI – Learning for Integration ry (FI)
FTSI – Fundación de Trabajadores de la Siderurgia Integral (ES)