Award-winning Navitas Skilled Futures program for migrants and refugees that combines learning English with swimming lessons has been turned into a teaching resource to be shared widely across Australia to help reduce drownings.
After successfully running the English for Swimming program in Southwest Sydney for the past two years, Navitas Skilled Futures has produced an interactive book for free distribution to other adult education providers in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) community.
The comprehensive English for Swimming resource will give more adults from CALD backgrounds new skills and water confidence, and ultimately help reduce the number of drowning deaths among this statistically over-represented group.
As a Surf Life Saver, AUSTSWIM qualified instructor, ESL teacher and Navitas Skilled Futures Learning Designer, Michelle Cowans has been perfectly placed to run the English for Swimming program, which has colleges in Sydney’s Southwest and the ACT. She said putting her knowledge into a book, with suggested lessons, links to instructional and virtual reality videos and flash cards, means the program can now be easily adopted by others.
“All you need is a pool and instructors, and the program could be run anywhere,” she said.
Navitas Skilled Futures General Manager Jetinder Macfarlane said it was a privilege to be able to cover the cost of this project on behalf of educators across Australia, if it helped to share the joy of swimming with those in CALD communities and, more importantly, saved lives.
“For many people, swimming at the beach or pool is part of Australian culture and lifestyle. From our experience we know that many adult migrants who never had the opportunity to learn to swim miss out on this experience for themselves and their families.
“This program breaks down the barriers and the fear, while helping participants improve their English language skills.” MacFarlane said.
The English for Swimming program, which was highly commended in the 2020 NSW Humanitarian Awards, is the first of its kind to combine English language skills, games in the classroom and virtual reality, with physical swimming lessons.
“Some of the more unexpected outcomes are an increased sense of mental wellbeing, increased confidence, happiness in forming a community as well as being part of something that is quite special,” Michelle added.
Program participant Salma Meher Aieshee said the English for Swimming program not only helped her overcome her water phobia but also led to her first job in Australia. She said,
"It's hard to manage time to learn swimming when you are adult, it's also terrifying,”
“I was terrified too because I had water phobia ... but after 10 classes I started loving water. I am still learning swimming and have a long way to go but I can do it and it is fun. I also got my first job through this class! The pool instructor was looking for an admin assistant for her businesses and I got the opportunity to work there!"
English for Swimming program extends reach
Watch the English for Swimming book launch