The Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) is a government-funded program for all permanent visa holders and some temporary visa holders who have less than a vocational level of English. Not all people who are eligible for the AMEP participate in it. The Department of Home Affairs commissioned BETA to evaluate the effectiveness of communication in participants’ home languages on increasing participation in the AMEP.
BETA tested whether sending people translated information about the program would increase participation above the current practice of providing information in English. BETA found no difference in engagement with the AMEP between the groups who received the communication material in English and those who received it in their home languages. However, people who received a translated text message were significantly more likely to click a link to find further information than those who received a text message in English.
Intervention start date
Trial 1: 10 January 2022
Trial 2: 27 December 2021
Ethics approval
Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) Humanities and Social Sciences, Macquarie University
Trial 1 reference: 52021937734106
Trial 2 reference: 520211043034213
Experimental design
Trial 1: A 2x2 factorial design, students will be randomised at the address level so people at the same addresses are in the same treatment group (clustered). We will stratify by service provider region to ensure balance in treatment group assignment across the four regions.
Trial 2: Potential students will be randomised at the address level so people at the same addresses are in the same treatment group (clustered). We will stratify by service provider and language region to ensure balance in treatment group assignment across the four regions.
Interventions
Trial 1: We will send text messages to speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arabic who have previously enrolled in the AMEP and have disengaged. Text messages will be in either participants’ home languages or English and come from their service provider or the department.
Trial 2: We will send letters and emails to speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arabic who are eligible for the AMEP and have never enrolled. The letter and emails will be in either participants’ home languages or English.
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
Trial 1: The primary outcome measure is re-engagement in the AMEP, indicated by a scheduled activity date (when the participant contacts the service provider to schedule returning to class).
Trial 2: The primary outcome measure is enrolments in the AMEP, as measured by registration date.
Secondary outcome
Trial 1: The secondary outcome will be the proportion of participants who click on the link embedded in the text message.
Trial 2: The secondary outcome will be the proportion of participants who visit the link embedded in the email and letter.
Expected sample size:
- Trial 1: 26,000
- Trial 2: 16,990