How AKG's employment coaches are reaching jobseekers who don't speak English

It’s often the people who need the most help that are hardest to reach. 

Think about someone who doesn’t speak English trying to find a job in the UK. They’re navigating an unfamiliar system, with no UK work history and qualifications that aren't always recognised.

For employment coaches trying to help these people, the language barrier also makes it harder to explain what support is available, build trust and keep someone engaged in a programme long enough to find work. 

Employment coaches at AKG have started using Beam’s live translation tool, to help participants overcome some of these barriers to work. We spoke to Cass Owen, an employment coach in AKG's Stafford office, about how Interpret has changed the way she supports participants.

A third party and a ticking clock 

Before Interpret, Cass would call an external translation service and wait on the line for a translator. Sometimes she couldn’t get through to a translator at all, so she had to cancel the appointment. 

There was also a time limit on every conversation. "You only get 30 minutes with an interpreter before the call cuts off," Cass says. "And the meetings always last longer than that." Often the cut-off came just as the participant was starting to relax and open up. 

Now there’s just two people in the room

Now, Cass opens her laptop, finds a quiet room, and starts the conversation straight away. 

"There's no external person waiting to interpret," she says. "There's more connectivity when it's just the two of you, rather than a third person being there."

And if a conversation needs an hour, it gets an hour. For a participant who’s nervous or unsure, that time is everything. 

The conversation that kept a participant on the programme 

Every employability programme is different, and the support on offer takes some explaining. With an interpreter on the line, Cass couldn't hear what was being translated, or tell whether the participant had understood any of it. 

One of her participants was close to leaving the programme. Cass wanted to tell her about an intensive English course AKG could put her on. The idea that someone would help her learn English was so far from what she expected that it didn't sink in at first. With Interpret, Cass went over it again until it did.

"That would have been really hard with a third party there, because we had to go over it so many times,” Cass says. “Just having the time to patiently go over it, that was a bit life-changing for her." 

Support that continues after the meeting

After each meeting, Cass uses Interpret to translate the whole conversation and send the participant a recap in their own language, covering what they discussed and what happens next.

The participant reads it after every appointment, and knows exactly where they stand. 

"She can read it and think, 'Yes, I got the right message in the meeting. These are my expectations, and this is when my next meeting is,'" Cass explains.

It matters in a way that's harder to measure, too. "She feels more connected," Cass says, "because I'm taking that extra step to write it in her language."

Building a CV for someone who’s never had one 

Employment coaches at AKG also use Beam Notes to record appointments. They have custom templates that turn transcripts into structured write-ups, including a CV template that translates what’s been discussed into a skills-based resume. 

Using Notes and Interpret together, Cass can build a CV for a participant in a few clicks, in a meeting held in another language.

"Today they wouldn't have had a CV," Cass says. "Now they both do." She adds, "Doing it any other way would have been impossible. It would have had to be an additional service that was provided for them."

CVs are also one of the things Cass is measured on. "We have to hit those targets," she says. "To be able to do that with a participant from overseas, and for it not to be so time-constrained, is awesome."

Working with Beam to improve the tools 

We all know how it feels to look for a feature in a piece of software only to discover it doesn’t exist. We don’t have the power to fix it, so we find work arounds instead. 

When Cass needed to use Interpret with a Dari speaking participant, she thought she might as well ask. Much to her surprise, her request was heard, and the language was added in under ten days. 

"At one point I thought, I'm not sure I can even mention it. Would it change anything?" she says. "And the next time I went to use it, it was there." An "amazing turnaround", as she puts it. 

No going back 

Cass is in no hurry to go back to the way things were. "I wouldn't want to go back to the translation service," she says. "Interpret just feels so much more integrated into my day to day." She's excited to see where the tools go next, and help more people  overcome barriers to work.  

Interpret is specifically built for frontline employability work, not general translation. Get in touch to see how it works.