Waldemar Alvarez (aka Wally) is a Social Value & Community Engagement Manager at Multiplex, a premier construction company with a simple purpose: to construct a better future. To date, Wally has referred bulk learners to Dagile's English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course.
We recently interviewed Wally to understand the impact this course has had for cohorts of Multiplex staff.
Hello Wally, can you tell our readers who you are and what your job entails?
As a Social Value & Community Engagement Manager for Multiplex, my job is very varied. I work alongside community groups, educational institutions and the local authorities in Central London to link any opportunities created by the project to the local community; this includes securing jobs and apprenticeships for local people, social procurement, raising funds for local charities, looking after the wellbeing and ethical treatment of our workers and acting as a point of contact for our project stakeholders. Multiplex Construction is a main contractor working on major projects in Zones 1 & 2 in London.
What made you enrol your staff onto the (ESOL) Speaking and Listening course?
Multiplex undertake regular welfare and ethical labour interviews with our operatives on site. Through delivery of these audits we realised that many operatives had a limited understanding of the English Language, so we were keen to be able to offer support. Dagile’s ESOL course had the capacity to help improve the lives of the operatives taking part not only at work with general communication and to better understand their payslips, contracts, training, but most importantly to help them to fully integrate their lives here in the UK.
What made you choose Dagile as a training provider?
We trialled this course at our Western Yards Project (BY3) based in Southwark where Dagile and LBSU are both local education institutions. The Dagile team were very knowledgeable, approachable and willing to work with our industry restrictions in order to make the programme viable for the project. It is also important to note that when we started the programme we were in the first year of the pandemic and Dagile made it very easy for the learners to access the lessons via any digital platform.
Why do you think it is important to allow your staff to learn at work?
As the course provided ESOL - Listening and Speaking, we hoped it could help the operatives to better understand the legal aspects of working in the UK (for example payslips and contracts) but also to be able to understand any training and/or instructions provided by Multiplex in relation to Health & Safety. From a risk point of view, it is imperative that operatives on our sites have a basic level of English in order to carry out any work safely. It also offers an opportunity for learners to grow and develop and become more confident in their day to day lives in the UK.
Has the training helped your staff develop new skills and what opportunities do they have to implement them in the workplace?
Yes it has. The learners improved English skills can be seen day to day at work, how they communicate with their peers, their supervisors, and how they carry out tasks at work.
How is your company benefiting for these new skills?
It’s hard to quantify this, but feedback has been that learners have been more confident at work and much better at communicating. Some office staff have also undertaken some of the other courses provided by Dagile in the last few months, which will help them develop further in their current and future roles.
Thank you Wally, do you have any final thoughts?
Dagile and the courses that were offered to us have been an amazing tool to help improve the lives of our operatives, their confidence and their performance. The learners have new skills that will be useful for years to come. Multiplex are very grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in this programme with Dagile.
Thank you Wally for sharing your Dagile experience with our readers. We encourage readers to look at the Multiplex website and social media to see more of the amazing buildings you create through the links below.
