Often, even a brief interchange would convey a sense of the teacher being aware of the learner’s broader life and an empathy with it, as shown in this exchange at the conclusion of a session:

  T: Good on you [name], that’s good. It’s working.
  L: Yeah
  T: Yeah, yeah, cool. So what are you doing for the weekend?
  L: Oh...
  T: Any hot dates?

It is interesting to note that in two of the Youth Training (YT) programmes, some of the younger learners referred to their teachers as ‘Mum’, which is clearly indicative of their respect and trust for these teachers.

The only incident we observed reminiscent of formal schooling was where a YT class finished their work unexpectedly early and were required to stay on-site for approximately 45 minutes until they could leave for the day. While this behaviour is required by the funding body and is justified by the programme administrators as being “how it is in the real workplace,” it did have a feel about it of ‘being kept in’.

In one interview, a teacher explained how she set out to achieve a positive learning environment:

  I: Do you spend much time at the beginning of the year sort of setting up a particular learning environment, getting group cohesiveness?
  T: Yeah, we do, you take it slower, it goes much slower at the beginning. People do introductions and then that cuppa tea time is longer at the beginning, so people sort of have a chat to each other, it was sort of a bit rushed today, but often there’s time there for them to interact and I actually often leave them to it, so they start talking to each other.
  I: To each other, rather than interacting with you?
  T: That’s right, so it’s all those little things and people often arrive a bit early and they have a chat and they talk to each other, so, those things are happening around it, yeah, but usually the group, they, they get quite close in some ways, and some of the women, they ring each other up now, the older ladies and they go out on little trips together some times. Occasionally that happens.

Creating a supportive environment means that students feel free to bring up issues ‘on top’ which is not only personally supportive, but also helps ‘clear the way’ for more effective teaching.