Skills for life and work

Is your grammar holding you back? Learn how to communicate more effectively by analysing, discussing and experimenting with English grammar. This course will help you realise that grammar is really about meaning: understanding better the meaning of what someone is saying and expressing yourself more meaningfully.



You need to do a pre-course assessment. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for a face-to-face assessment or click the Start Assessment button on this page. Log on with your email address (not name). The course runs over three terms (though you may start any term, places allowing).

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

For students who can are not complete beginners and can speak and write a little English. On this course you will learn new words and grammar, how to ask and answer questions, how to read and write about yourself, your family, and friends, and how to complete forms and write short emails. You will also learn some simple maths to tell the time, count and learn maths vocabulary.



You need to do a pre-course assessment. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for a face-to-face assessment or click the Start Assessment button on this page. Log on with your email address (not name).

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

Do you want to sound ‘more English’ when you speak? Do you want the chance to experiment with becoming expressive in English, playing with how you sound when you speak different dialogues? On this course, you will work on different dialogues from everyday speech and well known plays. And you will also create your own! The chance to work on how to perform and enact this speech will enable you to focus on how to link and ‘chunk’ words, develop your rhythm and stress, work on your fluency and ensure that the meaning of what you are saying becomes expressed. You will also be working with ‘real’ language, not the sometimes artificial language of English course books. Although you will be performing the texts, you do not need to be an actor, just willing to give it a go. By writing your own dialogues, you will also develop your writing skills so by the end of the course you can write and perform together with your classmates your own 5 minute play!.



You need to do a pre-course assessment. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for a face-to-face assessment or click the Start Assessment button on this page. Log on with your email address (not name).

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

Do you want to improve your reading and writing skills in English for everyday use? On this course, you will practise your reading and writing skills, but also improve your speaking and listening. Covering different topics such as daily routine, transport, health and shopping, you will practise identifying and reading different texts, writing answers, and asking and answering basic questions in the present simple tense.

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

Would you like to be more confident in the way you write whether emails or reports at work or messages to friends? Do you want to work on how you form sentences, understand grammar and use punctuation so your writing is more creative? Do you want to learn how to create meaning in your writing?. This course will help you be more secure in your professional, academic or creative writing skills and help you improve some of your weak areas around forming and punctuating sentences with appropriate grammatical form. You will develop your confidence in the most essential areas of writing including different sentence structures, writing paragraphs, using punctuation effectively, using active and passive voices and proofreading.



You need to do a pre-course assessment. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for a face-to-face assessment or click the Start Assessment button on this page. Log on with your email address (not name).

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

You can have the most amazing business ideas, but if you cannot communicate them, they will be of very little use. Join this course and explore how clear writing leads to clear thinking. You will develop the key skills needed to share information and ideas effectively inside and outside your company whether writing internal memos, emails to line managers, communications to customers, business proposals or reports, By the end of the course, you will be able to organise your business writings to suit the reader, convey ideas clearly, concisely and coherently and be confident you can express complex matters simply and effectively.



Do you manage a team? Are you taking part in work meetings feeling your voice isn't heard? Do you need to give presentations, make sales pitches, or persuade others to follow your proposals? If so, then this course will help you. You will learn different techniques used in drama to enable you to create an effect. You will practise how respond to others so that they engage with you. You will focus on how to manipulate your voice, how to project and how to focus on the emphasising the meaning of what you want to say.



You need to do a pre-course assessment activity to make sure this is the right course for you. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 to book a face-to-face appointment. Or click the Start Assessment button on this page.

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

The purpose of this course is to prepare you for the English Functional Skills Level 1. It will support you in developing your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in English for work, education and real life situations.

This course is free for learners who have not achieved a GCSE grade C (4) and higher in English. For more information Click here

The purpose of the Functional Skills English Level 2 qualification is to prepare learners for work, study and real life situations. Learners who achieve this qualification will demonstrate the ability to read, write, speak, listen and communicate in English. Learners will be able to apply these communication skills effectively to a range of contexts in the workplace and practical situations.

This course is free for learners who have not achieved a GCSE grade C (4) and higher in English. For more information Click here

This is the Writing unit of the ESOL course to give you confidence in writing sentences for emails and letters clearly. You will learn how write formal or informal topics using the right grammar and vocabulary. You will focus on planning and organising writing into paragraphs and writing clear introductions and conclusion.

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

Do you sometimes feel you cannot speak in meetings? Are you shy with customers? In your daily life, do you find it difficult to give your opinions? This course will give you the confidence and skills to express yourself in different situations.







Our experienced skills tutor, also a trained actor, will help you learn how to stay calm and focused. You will work on increasing your vocabulary, developing your listening skills and expressing your thoughts and opinions clearly in a positive manner.







You need to do a pre-course assessment. Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for a face-to-face assessment or click the Start Assessment button on this page. Log on with your email address (not name).

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

This is the Speaking and Listening unit of the ESOL course to give you confidence in communicating with others on different topics in a range of contexts. You will practice speaking fluently in different types of conversations, responding to questions on a range of topics and you will build your vocabulary by learning more synonyms and antonyms. You will also have the opportunity to hear a variety of accents and varieties of English. Speaking about interesting everyday topics you will practise different tenses and improve your pronunciation including stress and intonation to convey meaning.

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here

Are you working in an office and need to improve your communication skills? Would you like to become an administrator but feel your written English is holding you back? This course will help you become a confident, flexible and successful communicator in writing, in person, on the phone and online. You will work on using the right language for written documents and for when speaking to colleagues, managers, customers, in meetings and on the phone. You will focus on different levels of formal and informal communication and how to speak and write clearly and concisely, with appropriate tone e.g. in emails and letters on a PC. You will also work on how to lay out key documents using Word, spell well and punctuate correctly. You will also start to learn about the cloud and how to use key parts of Microsoft 365. By the end of this course, you will confident you can work successfully in an office environment.



Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 8078 0489 for information and to book a pre-course assessment. You can also click the Start Assessment button on this page.

This course is FREE if you are employed and on a low wage or you are claiming benefits. For more information Click here