Working Skills for Adults 2 Tutor Team
Merthyr
Working Skills for Adults 2 reaches people who are employed or self-employed who would like to increase their skills, targeting support and qualifications to help progress in their current jobs or change career.
Leanne Williams says,
We know that for many, in-work poverty is a huge issue. Our aim is to build skills to give more choice, more control over their lives and empower them to move forward. We often work with people who didn’t enjoy education the first time around – many didn’t like school, left without any qualifications and for some, additional learning needs just weren’t identified.”
The tutor team focus on rebuilding confidence. Leanne says, “It’s an amazing reward to see our learners achieve, gain qualifications and move forward. Some get promotions, change jobs and build more skills to help with their families and to live life more positively.”
At the start of the pandemic tutors kept in touch with learners via email and telephone and quickly realised that there was an appetite from the learners to continue their learning online.
When the pandemic hit, all tutors on the team felt that they needed to upskill themselves quickly and they worked with partner organisations such as Digital Communities Wales to enable them to do this.
The tutors showed huge commitment to continue working with learners whilst all facing challenges themselves such as childcare, ill health and bereavement.
The team worked hard to create online live lessons and to make these sessions interactive and interesting for the learners. Most recently, tutors are responding to the challenges faced by many who are unsure what their work future holds.
Learners have revealed that they are concerned that industries that they have worked in for many years may not continue, such as retail and hospitality. In response to this the tutors have developed a range of Step into a New Career courses which provide learners with a new career path.
In addition to this, wider life issues are also identified and the team links with organisations such as MIND, Samaritans and housing / debt charities. They say, “It’s so important to work with each person on all of the issues that are affecting them and our partners provide expert information when needed.”
“We are so incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, there are no compromises on quality. We all know that we have so much more still to do but we are driven by working with each of our learners to create better futures for them and their families.”
