I have worked most of my adult life, and finally got to the position I wanted to be at in my career. I had gained two NEBOSH (General certificate & Fire risk management) qualifications and I was working at a football club which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Unfortunately, nothing in life is easy as I became very ill. I have had type one diabetes since the age of 12 but then was also diagnosed with a muscle wasting disease known as Charcote-Marie-Tooth. I spent many months in hospital and to cut a long story short I found myself disabled with mobility issues and realised my life was going to be very different from now on.
After being disabled for eight years, I thought my employment days where well and truly over, but then I came across a company by the name of Diversiti UK who were offering a course to disabled people in employability skills called “Breaking Down the Barriers”.
I attended the ten week course which covered skills such as CV writing, interview skills and applying for jobs.
During the course, the tutor noticed that I had a set of useful skills and he approached me to ask if I would be interested in helping deliver courses on a voluntary basis. I very willingly agreed and the first course I co-delivered was on disability awareness and equality, delivered to local authority staff in London.
As a disabled person, this subject is very close to my heart and the course flowed smoothly and was very well received by the participants. They were very appreciative to have a disabled person talking about equality and disability issues.
Can you help us?
Diversiti UK have recently been granted more funding to run employability courses for people who have any kind of disability, which can range from mental illness to mobility issues.
On the course we offer employability skills in every aspect including basic health and safety training, which of course is my passion and forte. The courses last ten weeks and most of the students are extremely fulfilled by the end of the course, to such an extent that they don’t want to leave.
Diversiti UK has built links with a voluntary employment company and we try to find placements for the students on the course. We have found that this is the best way of helping people back into employment as this helps to build their confidence and self esteem.
I volunteer on the course as a tutor, and as we are a Community Interest Company, very much reliant on funding and donations, our resources are extremely limited. Finding free health and safety DVD’s/material can be very challenging. We need training materials in order to run our courses. If you have any DVDs or materials that we could use then please get in touch.
Diversiti UK Learning and Development C.I.C. offers a variety of training courses including: Equality and Diversity, Disability Awareness, Safeguarding, Employability and many more, for details go to www.diversiti.uk or call 0800 612 7479/ 01604 745745 email [email protected]
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