Caritas Aspire Education (formerly Caritas Refugee Education) is a project operated by Caritas Diocese of Salford which works alongside asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants in the pursuit of their career, education and entrepreneurial goals.

Our Model:

Over the past seven years, the project has developed a model of integration which is tailored specifically to the needs of refugees in Greater Manchester. Inspired by Pope Francis’ call for refugees to be ‘the agents of their own salvation’, our vision is a world in which refugees are able to thrive and contribute to the societies in which they find themselves.

To this end we offer high quality mentoring and advice for those seeking to enter higher education, English language tutoring, and wrap-around wellbeing support. Through forging links between refugee and local faith-groups we hope to demonstrate that refugees are an asset to society.

Our services:

We offer the following services to refugees and asylum seekers in Greater Manchester:

 1) English Language Classes taught by professionally qualified tutors at seven ability levels;

2) Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) to migrants seeking to pursue their careers, education or businesses;

3)  support and referrals on issues such as cost-of-living, housing, mental health etc.; 4) Regular social events and trips focussed on social interaction, confidence building, and conversational English practice.

Our Learners:

Our learners come from the refugee community in Greater Manchester. We include and reach out to refugee learners from all faiths and those with no religion (in rough order of prevalence: Muslim, Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox), Buddhist) with volunteers coming from local Catholic parishes, local universities, the refugee community, and local businesses. This ensures cross-cultural communication, within the wellbeing environment, keeps learners engaged and have new things to learn from each other, as well as tutors.