Staff at a craft shop in Beeston have explained how they are helping young people with learning difficulties and additional needs become equipped for work life.
Shelly Wood, director of The Plane Tree, worked at Clifton's Nethergate Academy, which provides education and support to young people from the ages of five to 19 with special educational needs. Having worked there for 12 years, Ms Wood she saw a shortfall in provision available to help vulnerable youngsters prepare for working life.
The non-for-profit craft store, located at the High Street in Beeston, has four trainees from the school who have been working in the shop. The Plane Tree aims to help young people with learning difficulties gain experience and develop workplace skills.
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These individuals need extra support when getting into employment, and Ms Wood said: “it’s about tackling things on all different levels.
“I’ve been working in special schools. I was head of upper school for about 12 years so I’ve seen the reality of young people with additional needs and learning difficulties that are leaving and want to engage with the community. That may be through employment or just finding a place in society where they’re valued.”
The latest figures released from the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) suggest that 4.8% of adults with a learning disability known to their local authority in England are in paid work. Across England, the East Midlands is the lowest region for employment for people with a learning disability, at 3.1%. Whilst the highest region is the South East with 6.6% in employment.
For trainees Declan and James, who are both 18 years old, barriers they face involve getting jobs in the first instance, meeting people who don’t know their needs, long hours to work and transport. The Plane Tree has helped them improve their confidence and social skills within employment.
James said: “Chatting to strangers can be a bit of a barrier. It’s helped my confidence and being myself. I’m getting better at talking to people. With support I’ve got better at the till.”
Ms Wood added: “It's very hard, it's hard to gain employers that will allow us to do work experience placements in the first instance. I think that there are many reasons why the figures are low in the first instance and that's what we’re really trying to do at The Plane Tree.
"In a very small way it's to identify some of those barriers and overcome them. I think there are barriers on both sides, in terms of the barriers that the individuals with the additional needs face and I think there are barriers in the wider society and their motivation to engage with them. One of the things is understanding that we’re all individuals and it’s about a person rather than the label.”
The shop has been open since November last year, and in this time the young people from Nethergate Academy who are training with The Plane Tree have been working and improving their skills.
One of the biggest issues that The Plane Tree highlights is that employers need to engage with schools and the students. Mel Kirk, vocational leader at Nethergate Academy said: “I think the thing that we try and do if we can is we have people come into the school and meet some of the students. You talk about students with special needs and some employers then straight away say ‘no’ because they don’t know what to expect.
“So in some ways it’s great to let the students come to meet you or you come into the school and are happy to go either way. I think it’s really important because that breaks down some of the barriers. They meet the student first and realise they have great work ethic, are hard working and prepared to do anything.”
Ms Wood added: “For me it’s about tackling things on all different levels. One positive thing is that people are becoming more aware that we have neurodiversity in society and they’re starting to hear the voices of more neuro divergent people. So as that comes people are starting to talk about more learning disabilities, about autism, about different conditions like Down' syndrome.
“I think it is going to take a while for us to really start understanding that these are individuals and that they bring assets because I think initially what we see is difference and we may not be able to identify as a society that actually there’s particular assets in many cases to being neuro divergent.”
“I really hope that as more schools and colleges approach employers for that work experience that they will agree to having somebody have a placement that's got additional needs. And that might be the first step to sort of seeing more people in the workplace and then engaging with people like us in terms of internship programs, placements and supported employment - I think there’s a lot that can be done really.”
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