Case study of the work at Petach Tikva, Israel

When Kate commenced her study at the Karten CTEC Centre at Portland College she pursued the Business Administration programme although her initial interests were in installation and networking. Despite having hemiplegia, she studied very hard and achieved “Microsoft Office Specialist Master” status gaining knowledge and skills at expert level.

With determination, whilst paying attention to a high level of accuracy and using only a one-handed keyboard, she carefully prepared for and gained competence in Text Processing of business documentation, which led to achievement of the distinction grade at Level 2 with no extra time granted.

During her training at Portland College Kate also developed personal experience and practical skills in administration and customer service when helping with tasks and duties on main reception. Kate’s increasing confidence has driven her to provide voluntarily the main reception’s cover on many occasions. At the same time she was able to demonstrate the ability for working independently.

Kate’s very good organisation skills had also a significant impact on providing live work to other members of staff across many departments at Portland College. Her mature and responsible approach has been evident each time she had to leave the training room. Kate made sure her desk looked tidy and that things were always left in a neat manner at the end of each college day.

During the training period at Portland College Kate became a self-motivated person, who set herself high personal standards of performance and achievement. She has completed her training with two external work placements, where even further she has grown in confidence personally and professionally. As well as being able to demonstrate her commitment she has proven to be a conscientious and talented young woman, who continually strives for more and as the effect of this Kate has secured herself a place to study towards degree level in Social Sciences in September.

Being partially disabled through a back injury from a fall at my previous employment, after losing my position there, I was told that I would never work again.

I was asked by my DEA, Ann Armes, if I would like to try out the Karten CTEC Centre at Portland College as she knew that the only goal in my life was to get back to work and this was a way to achieve it.

I came to Portland in February 2007 as a new student in Administration/Customer Service (it was scary). I arrived at the College at 8.30 am in reception and was taken to the Administration/Customer Service team where I was introduced to Christine Price, my tutor. She noticed that I was very nervous, hands shaking and white as a ghost.

Christine asked if I was alright and the answer was no as this was the first time I had ever been on a computer. After being spoken to by Christine and being set up on the computer, my nerves started to settle down. Gradually I gained more and more confidence in myself to achieve the tasks I was given. From using one finger on the keyboard at a time I reached over 35 wpm within 7 months. In that time I have achieved OCR level 2 in Text Production (with a distinction), Level 1 in Literacy and working towards Excel and Word.

I applied for a number of jobs at various companies with no success then an opportunity came up at Portland College for Assessment Co-ordinator which I applied for. On the 20 September I was invited to an interview with Lisa Austin which I thought went 50/50, then on 27 September I received a phone call from her saying I had been successful with my application and did I want the position of Assessment Co-ordinator.

What do you think was my reply? I told Lisa that I was happy to accept. Through sheer determination and the work I had put in I had achieved my goal in getting back into employment. This was not just down to myself but the way I was taught by Christine and her colleagues whom, without their skills and knowledge and the facilities in the Karten CTEC Centre, I would not be where I am today, back in employment and working somewhere that I can pass on my knowledge and experience to new people arriving at the College and explaining that there is another world out there and anything can be achieved!

Gordon has worked as a Miner, Driver, Plastic Injection Moulder, Fresh Food Producer and an Anti-Corrosive Powder Coater. A terrible brain injury and minor stroke meant he had to retire due to illness. Gordon was ‘driven’ to work again and was accepted on a Karten course at Portland College.

Gordon says,

In both 1989 and 2001, I suffered terrible brain injuries and was forced into premature retirement thinking that my working life was over at the age of 40.

I was given the chance to take a training course at Portland College in the Karten CTEC Centre.

To my credit I succeeded in gaining Microsoft Office Specialist Qualifications and am working towards an OCR qualification in Text Production. My confidence hit the heavens and I am now doing work experience as a Learning Support Assistant, assisting other students in using IT. This work gives me so much satisfaction, helping people who need to learn like I did. I now feel that I am in a very good position to secure full time employment; I thought I would never work again, but thanks to the Karten CTEC Centre at Portland my vision is becoming a reality.

Carol was the first female student to achieve Microsoft Office Master status and gained a place in the top 25 in England and Wales to reach the finals of the 2005 Microsoft Office Specialist Competition. Carol had a work placement opportunity with the Nottingham Fire and Rescue Service which has now turned into employment.

Gaining self-esteem, boosting confidence and achieving a few qualifications were the main goals that I wished to achieve by attending Portland College.

Little did I know just how much confidence, self-esteem and knowledge I would gain in my year at Portland College, in the Karten CTEC Centre. I have gained qualifications in all of the Microsoft packages, computerised accounts, text processing and numeracy. My confidence was boosted by having to interact between the students, tutors and management during the time spent in the General Office and on the main and employment reception areas. All the tutors in Admin and Customer Services have pushed the boundaries and goal posts to stretch my abilities and have had faith in me throughout the year to achieve these goals. Thanks to the staff here I now feel that I have the ability to take on new challenges in new areas whereas before I would tend to take a back seat.

When starting at the college you are told that your course is unique and that everything is arranged to suit you. Well I can certainly say that this is true. My time at Portland has seen so much laughter and happiness and that is thanks to the friends, staff and students that I have had the pleasure of meeting and working alongside during my learning journey.

Case Study of Martin Allman: My story of a journey to success:

I started at St James House, Karten Centre as a student in March 2004. At the time, I was low in confidence and had no structure to my day. I also found it difficult to talk to people and participate in other projects that were going on at the time because of my short attention span. My aim however was to increase my confidence and develop work-based skills.

I was inspired by my tutor, Ryan Tebbit, at St James House, The way he taught me about IT was a revelation, and it was Ryan who encouraged me to take up the role of teaching in the mental health sector.

As time went on, I found that my confidence grew and I was able to help other people who were on the same IT project. Not only did I find satisfaction in learning the syllabus, but also in interacting with others and sharing my knowledge and skills.

Later on when I had finished the IT project, I was asked if I wanted to join the IT team as a Permitted Work Placement. I saw this as a great opportunity to pass on what I had learnt to other students, and to constructively utilise my new skills and confidence.

While undertaking the Permitted Work Placement at St. James’s House, I also studied for the ECDL qualification and the City and Guilds in delivering learning. These 2 courses were vital for me to progress into teaching but it was St James House which gave me the real inspiration I needed to become an IT trainer.

During my time as a Permitted Work Placement, I had the opportunity to take part in some exciting projects. One of these was the “Internet Roadshow” – an innovative project in which we would take laptops to a day centre and support service users to access the World Wide Web. We also established a project called Club Internet where we supported service users to utilise the internet for fun and everyday means, such as setting up an email account, booking a holiday, downloading music etc.

Three years on, I am now delighted to say that I have been employed as an Assistant It Trainer at St. James’s House. Thanks to the support of the staff team, the resources donated by The Ian Karten Charitable Trust and being in the right place at the right time, I have been able to make my dreams come true. In the space of three years I have come full circle – from Trainee to Trainer, doing what I love the most – utilising and teaching IT!

John Matthews came to Portland College having had a full hip replacement at the age of 50 with only one aim “to get a job”! He had found the operation quite traumatic but was pleased that he was no longer in pain, although there was only limited movement in his new joint.

John desperately needed to believe in himself, being new to computers, John had a great deal to overcome and was in awe of others using this new technology – especially his wife and children!!!

John gave his all during his training programme in the Karten CTEC Centre and made tremendous progress in a relatively short time. His confidence soared and soon he was the one showing his wife & children how to do things on the computer!! With his new found confidence and desire to get back to work John left his course early to put all his efforts into getting a job.

John is now 52 years old, fully mobile and is employed as a Care Worker at Stoneyford Care Home in Nottinghamshire, working around 30 hours a week, mainly nights.

John finds that he regularly pulls on the skills he acquired in the Karten CTEC Centre at Portland College, especially his communication skills as he deals with residents, relatives and professionals, both in person and over the telephone.

A job he thoroughly enjoys yet a world away from his previous job at Ashfield Dye Works where he worked for 10 years undertaking heavy manual work and, more recently, at Madison Packaging loading machines for printing.

A huge gamble but one that has paid off enabling John to put his new found skills into good use.

Dan finds the spark for employment with support from the National Star College Karten CTEC Centre

Dan arrived at the National Star College, a specialist residential college for students with physical disabilities in September 2001 from a mainstream secondary school in Herefordshire. Dan has cerebral palsy and dysarthria and came to college to develop IT, independent living and employability skills. He was studying an Entry-level course, but he quickly demonstrated his computer skills and transferred to a vocational IT course to study for the City & Guilds 7261 Certificate in Computer Applications. He achieved this full award in July 2002. During his second and third years Dan worked towards the City & Guilds e-Quals Diploma for IT Users. This qualification presented more of a challenge but with determination and maturity Dan has now completed the full award.

In January 2004 Dan enrolled onto a European Social Funded project called Active Employability at the National Star College in which he would learn a range of employability skills through taking a level two OCR qualification in preparation for employment and undertaking supported work placements with a job mentor. Dan was interested in using his IT skills in a non office based work place, he was placed at Clarkson Evans a local electrical contractor to work in the stores cataloguing and placing new stock into the stores. Working with the materials controller and the stores manager Dan undertook 123 hours of work placement and 120 hours of taught sessions using the Karten CTEC centre with support from his job mentor. Having successfully completed his programme Clarkson Evans has offered him a part time post in the stores. Dan is delighted and is really enjoying his work and looking forward to a future living and working independently in Cheltenham.

I was a passenger in a car accident in 1997. I had just finished a course at college where I had become a qualified riding instructor.

Straight after my accident I spent 9 months in hospital recovering and then was discharged home and had out-patient therapy. Also in this time I had to accept a lot of changes in my life, one of them being I wouldn’t be bale to work with horses any longer. I found this quite hard and although I wanted to get back to work I wasn’t sure how to go about it and wasn’t even sure on the type of work I could now do. This was when I heard about Rehab UK. It sounded ideal to help me gain employment.

The first few months was a great time for me, meeting lots of people in the same situation, with the same ambition to get back into work. We had group sessions where we were taught and swapped ideas of how to manage our disabilities at different times. I spent a lot of time talking to a Rehab UK job coach about the sort of job I would be interested in doing. I was still unsure at this point as I didn’t have any other qualifications.

A computer course in the Ian Karten CTEC Centre was an integral part of the programme and it is now in this area of work I have a job.

Before the computer course I had rarely used a computer and am very grateful to Rehab UK for giving me the opportunity to get qualified in an area I can now work in. The equipment in the Karten CTEC Centre and the teaching Rehab UK was able to provide was first class and my thanks go to everyone involved.