First Steps - Reading and Writing - Arnold Library - Adult Learning

Arnold Library, Arnold

Date	16 September 2025 - 10 February 2026
Sessions	Tuesdays: 9:30am - 12pm
No. sessions	18
Venue	Arnold Library, Arnold View venue details
For ages	19+
Group size	5 - 4
Cost	Free

About this course

This Functional Skills course aims to improve your English skills and your confidence in using these. This course has been designed for adult learners who require some extra help with reading and writing and may have already been assessed as working at Entry level 1-3.

This Entry Level course will be delivered in a small group and at a slower pace than our other English Functional Skills courses. Our experienced staff will help you to improve your reading, writing and speaking and listening in a friendly and relaxed environment.

You will start with some of the basics of reading and writing and build your skills from there. You will be assessed near the end of the course on these three elements and once you have successfully completed all of these you will achieve an Entry Level City and Guilds Functional Skills English Qualification.

Please make sure that you can attend the lesson each week before enrolling on the course. If you are new to learning English as a second language, an ESOL course will be more suitable for you, and these are listed on our website.

What you will need to bring to the course:

All resources that you need will be supplied by the tutor, but you may wish to have your own notebook to work in as well.

Booking your place and fee information

If you receive certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course, please visit our funding page for further information.

Residency in England

To book and enrol on one of our courses, you must be living in England permanently and live outside of the devolved areas listed below or live within the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) devolved area (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire).

Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Greater London
Greater Manchester
Liverpool City Region
Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland
Tees Valley
West of England
West Midlands
West Yorkshire

Residency Eligibility – other criteria

If you are living in the UK on a visa we will require evidence of this in order to be funded for the course, you can upload this evidence when you apply for the course. (completion of a questionnaire will be required).

Some exceptions may apply for example

Your visa expiry date must be beyond the end of your course
Asylum seekers must have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office
You are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014