ELC offers opportunities for PolyU students to reach out to the local community through its service-learning subject. A project known as “Connect Hong Kong”, in which PolyU students serve as literacy tutors and render English reading classes for primary school children, is organised every year. Each year about 30 PolyU students and 100 school children from community centres take part in this project.

ELC has been the academic consultant to Po Leung Kuk/ Hong Kong Rugby Union language programmes since 2004. The programmes aim to help nearly 900 students in residential care as well as from underprivileged backgrounds by raising their English language proficiency in order for them to reach tertiary level education and reduce the incidence of future inter-generational poverty.

ELC provides a range of services from management, recruitment of teachers and curriculum design to programme assessment and teacher training. Since 2013, with the goodwill of ELC staff, large-scale class observations and post-observation discussion have been made feasible to teachers on the language training programme.