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.