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Vocational Training for people with Dyspraxia By John Scovell
I was assessed by an Occupational Psychologist from Jobcentre Plus as being dyslexic and dyspraxic in 2002. In her report, she made a number of recommendations including one-to-one help to tackle my dyslexia from an organisation called Right 2 Write - a private company used by Job Centre Plus and also to attend The Queen Elizabeth Training College for the Disabled QETC), a residential college based in Leatherhead in Surrey.
As a result my Disability Employment Advisor (DEA) at the Jobcentre arranged for the course with Right 2 Write for me. The first thing that happened was that I had a meeting with my tutor from the company at their office in Central London. She explained that the course would be for a total of 35 hours in three hour sessions, twice a week. She told me the course was expensive i.e. I should be grateful and that it was up to me to change because 'at the end of the day we go home'. Her response to my questions was she wanted to go to lunch.
At the first formal tuition she gave me a lecture about 'not making excuses' something which I did not appreciate. During the rest of the course I found her cold abrupt and totally unsympathetic.
On one occasion towards the end of the course, she said I should practise my handwriting. I told her that I had spent hours and and hours practising my handwriting and that it had not changed and so I now accepted it as it was.
She reacted to that by tearing into me. She said. “There's no point in coming here if that's your attitude”
I felt like pointing out to her that her company was quite happy to accept the tuition fees for me being on their course. The thing to remember is that, at that time, I had still only recently found out I was dyspraxic, so was still coming to terms with it emotionally and her attitude did not help.
I can remember on another occasion she read from a book - a passage which said that the more attractive someone was the greater their chances of being offered a job where. She then went on to tell me what I should do to make my self look more attractive.. She also said me that “Its probably about 10 years since you have taken any exercise” which I think was really rude.
Unsurprisingly the course did not make me feel good about myself and I don't think it helped me at all.
Undaunted by this experience however, I agreed with my DEA to attend the QETC course for a year in order to study marketing. My reasons for going were that I really wanted a year away from the world and hopefully leave with more confidence in myself. Also living on dole money, I found I had got into debt, so all my benefit money was being used to pay off electricity bill arrears etc. At the QETC, accommodation was free, food was free, (three meals a day) no bills plus an extra £10.00 a week! I saw it as a way to dig myself out of the debt trap that I was in and maybe even save some money.
The College runs a variety of courses , some office based such as marketing, travel, IT, Admin, CAD, Media studies and some of a more practical nature such as woodwork.
The first impression of the college is of a large beautiful country house set in its own grounds Unfortunately this was for the colleges admin staff.
The college itself was at the back and was distinctly run down.
For the first few weeks I was happy at the college. I was lucky in my accommodation which was called Sembal house. It only had 12 trainees, each in their own single rooms and was fairly friendly, quiet and with a homely feel with an impressive view of the college grounds.
The course seemed to be going well and I found I enjoyed the social side of the college. I' m a great lover of the theatre and so took full advantage of the colleges weekly visits to Greenwich theatre in a college mini bus. We would normally have something to eat and have a drink in Greenwich before seeing the show ; there was a regular group who went.
I also went to Yoga twice a week and circuit training, one evening week. There were also trips to the cinema in either Dorking or Epsom.
However, as the course went on I did start to notice that things weren't quite as good as they seemed. For example ,as I mentioned, the college was very run down. I was lucky in my accommodation but others were not so lucky. The bulk of trainees were housed in a large depressing hostel, which could be very noisy as some people were very inconsiderate. There was a bar in the same block as the hostel accommodation and there were frequent fights.
The college was about three miles from the town of Leatherhead; there were no public transport links. I did start to feel as if I was living in an open prison. In fact, the college had been used as a film location to double as an open prison and for another set in aprison of war camp! They also filmed part of the latest Prime Suspect there. The trainees had a wide range of disabilities - not just ND ones, including heart conditions, arthritis, mental problems and, recovering from road accidents etc. Many trainees had been manual workers such as builders and were having to learn a new trade.
On my course four of us started and two dropped out very quickly. That left me and Ken. Ken had been a skinhead in his youth; then he did three years in the Army, including time in army prison, and then became a builder; and after suffering a heart condition ended up at the QETC to study marketing.
We did not get on at all. Ken was into being macho racist, etc. We just had nothing in common. He was constantly moaning at me for not chatting to him but like many people with Dyspraxia, I find small talk difficult and in his case, there was nothing I could talk to him about. Whenever I did talk to him, he would say 'have you swallowed a dictionary.'
I also started to notice that the College’s attitude seemed to me that the reason we were unemployed was that we were undisciplined and lazy and they were there to lick us into shape. The College has a very regimented programme. Training started at 08.00AM and went on to 05.00 PM with set tea and lunch breaks. We were not supposed to be out of our sections expect with good reason.
As time went on, I started to resent this regimented approach. I also noticed there was a culture of bullying by the staff. For example, a lecturer used to make sarcastic comments about my handwriting. I also saw lecturers completely humiliating some students. On one occasion, I went for IT training on Access database with another student who was new to computers and had never used computers before. He was having problems and when he asked the instructor for help was told 'look on the tool bar, its easy' Making him feel really small.
I felt that the course I attended was too low level to be of any real value in the workplace. It was a basic course meant to be done at evening classes.
Generally speaking the staff did not appreciate ND problems as the college culture was based on people having some form of physical injury which meant that they needed to be re-trained. Often the disability was not an issue for the occupation for which they were retraining; whereas with ND problems our disabilities tend to be an issue for most occupations.
My assessment of the college was that it did help me get out of debt; I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more without Ken and was quite lucky that in the last two months, I did make friends with a nice group of people.
If you have the opportunity to go I would think very carefully. You may be lucky and get on with the other people on your course and may have some good lecturers (some of them were) If you are having financial problems, it may be a way out. But think carefully what you want and why you want to go. You may be better off aiming higher and thinking of your local college or university.
It may be that such colleges are no longer relevant in today's world, if they are to continue, then I think they should be specifically designed to meet our needs rather than trying to force 'square peg into round holes.
I was assessed by an Occupational Psychologist from Jobcentre Plus as being dyslexic and dyspraxic in 2002. In her report, she made a number of recommendations including one-to-one help to tackle my dyslexia from an organisation called Right 2 Write - a private company used by Job Centre Plus and also to attend The Queen Elizabeth Training College for the Disabled QETC), a residential college based in Leatherhead in Surrey.
As a result my Disability Employment Advisor (DEA) at the Jobcentre arranged for the course with Right 2 Write for me. The first thing that happened was that I had a meeting with my tutor from the company at their office in Central London. She explained that the course would be for a total of 35 hours in three hour sessions, twice a week. She told me the course was expensive i.e. I should be grateful and that it was up to me to change because 'at the end of the day we go home'. Her response to my questions was she wanted to go to lunch.
At the first formal tuition she gave me a lecture about 'not making excuses' something which I did not appreciate. During the rest of the course I found her cold abrupt and totally unsympathetic.
On one occasion towards the end of the course, she said I should practise my handwriting. I told her that I had spent hours and and hours practising my handwriting and that it had not changed and so I now accepted it as it was.
She reacted to that by tearing into me. She said. “There's no point in coming here if that's your attitude”
I felt like pointing out to her that her company was quite happy to accept the tuition fees for me being on their course. The thing to remember is that, at that time, I had still only recently found out I was dyspraxic, so was still coming to terms with it emotionally and her attitude did not help.
I can remember on another occasion she read from a book - a passage which said that the more attractive someone was the greater their chances of being offered a job where. She then went on to tell me what I should do to make my self look more attractive.. She also said me that “Its probably about 10 years since you have taken any exercise” which I think was really rude.
Unsurprisingly the course did not make me feel good about myself and I don't think it helped me at all.
Undaunted by this experience however, I agreed with my DEA to attend the QETC course for a year in order to study marketing. My reasons for going were that I really wanted a year away from the world and hopefully leave with more confidence in myself. Also living on dole money, I found I had got into debt, so all my benefit money was being used to pay off electricity bill arrears etc. At the QETC, accommodation was free, food was free, (three meals a day) no bills plus an extra £10.00 a week! I saw it as a way to dig myself out of the debt trap that I was in and maybe even save some money.
The College runs a variety of courses , some office based such as marketing, travel, IT, Admin, CAD, Media studies and some of a more practical nature such as woodwork.
The first impression of the college is of a large beautiful country house set in its own grounds Unfortunately this was for the colleges admin staff.
The college itself was at the back and was distinctly run down.
For the first few weeks I was happy at the college. I was lucky in my accommodation which was called Sembal house. It only had 12 trainees, each in their own single rooms and was fairly friendly, quiet and with a homely feel with an impressive view of the college grounds.
The course seemed to be going well and I found I enjoyed the social side of the college. I' m a great lover of the theatre and so took full advantage of the colleges weekly visits to Greenwich theatre in a college mini bus. We would normally have something to eat and have a drink in Greenwich before seeing the show ; there was a regular group who went.
I also went to Yoga twice a week and circuit training, one evening week. There were also trips to the cinema in either Dorking or Epsom.
However, as the course went on I did start to notice that things weren't quite as good as they seemed. For example ,as I mentioned, the college was very run down. I was lucky in my accommodation but others were not so lucky. The bulk of trainees were housed in a large depressing hostel, which could be very noisy as some people were very inconsiderate. There was a bar in the same block as the hostel accommodation and there were frequent fights.
The college was about three miles from the town of Leatherhead; there were no public transport links. I did start to feel as if I was living in an open prison. In fact, the college had been used as a film location to double as an open prison and for another set in aprison of war camp! They also filmed part of the latest Prime Suspect there. The trainees had a wide range of disabilities - not just ND ones, including heart conditions, arthritis, mental problems and, recovering from road accidents etc. Many trainees had been manual workers such as builders and were having to learn a new trade.
On my course four of us started and two dropped out very quickly. That left me and Ken. Ken had been a skinhead in his youth; then he did three years in the Army, including time in army prison, and then became a builder; and after suffering a heart condition ended up at the QETC to study marketing.
We did not get on at all. Ken was into being macho racist, etc. We just had nothing in common. He was constantly moaning at me for not chatting to him but like many people with Dyspraxia, I find small talk difficult and in his case, there was nothing I could talk to him about. Whenever I did talk to him, he would say 'have you swallowed a dictionary.'
I also started to notice that the College’s attitude seemed to me that the reason we were unemployed was that we were undisciplined and lazy and they were there to lick us into shape. The College has a very regimented programme. Training started at 08.00AM and went on to 05.00 PM with set tea and lunch breaks. We were not supposed to be out of our sections expect with good reason.
As time went on, I started to resent this regimented approach. I also noticed there was a culture of bullying by the staff. For example, a lecturer used to make sarcastic comments about my handwriting. I also saw lecturers completely humiliating some students. On one occasion, I went for IT training on Access database with another student who was new to computers and had never used computers before. He was having problems and when he asked the instructor for help was told 'look on the tool bar, its easy' Making him feel really small.
I felt that the course I attended was too low level to be of any real value in the workplace. It was a basic course meant to be done at evening classes.
Generally speaking the staff did not appreciate ND problems as the college culture was based on people having some form of physical injury which meant that they needed to be re-trained. Often the disability was not an issue for the occupation for which they were retraining; whereas with ND problems our disabilities tend to be an issue for most occupations.
My assessment of the college was that it did help me get out of debt; I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more without Ken and was quite lucky that in the last two months, I did make friends with a nice group of people.
If you have the opportunity to go I would think very carefully. You may be lucky and get on with the other people on your course and may have some good lecturers (some of them were) If you are having financial problems, it may be a way out. But think carefully what you want and why you want to go. You may be better off aiming higher and thinking of your local college or university.
It may be that such colleges are no longer relevant in today's world, if they are to continue, then I think they should be specifically designed to meet our needs rather than trying to force 'square peg into round holes.
