I have been a youth and community worker for over 40 years, working in informal education with groups and individuals from many different backgrounds over that time. This included help with filling out complex job, benefits and grant application forms. I also taught video production as a freelance professional for eight years.

From 2002 to 2018 I was an external supervisor for the YMCA, specifically for students studying for their Youth and Community Work qualification. Many of these students were not proficient in English, especially when writing complex essays about their work. Increasingly I used our supervision sessions to go through their essays with them, helping them with spelling, grammar, comprehension, essay structure and so on.

My overall communication and capacity-building skills as a community worker and this specific experience means that I would be best able to support students in this way, helping at an advanced level (GCSE to post-graduate level) with written work and verbal presentations where students may have English as a first language but are not very proficient at it; or students who do not have English as a first language.

I am also experienced in public speaking and debate, both as a community worker, trades union representative and rights campaigner. I have delivered speeches and presentations to audiences of hundreds of people, won prizes for prose and poetry reading and have delivered training to underprivileged groups. I can teach all of these skills.

Basic principles of good essay writing, public speaking and debating can be applied to a wide range of topics both in the arts and sciences, so what you need can be customised accordingly.