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Case Study - Cornwall
Joan Lee at Care Connect is managing a project that is being supported
by European Social fund and Job Center Plus in Cornwall to research and
develop support packages for Carers who are wanting to take up learning
opportunities or return to work.  In
the planning stages of the project we identified the need to include some
training that would help carers to build on their existing experience
and skills, to develop confidence and start to explore their future options.
Learning for Living seemed the ideal resource for achieving these
needs and objectives. After incorporating Learning for Living
within our programme we started promoting the course and have used carers
support groups throughout Cornwall to help do so; we also have one of
the local colleges whose supporting us in promoting the course.
Once we began receiving expressions of interest, we held a series of
information sessions in order for our learners (mainly aged in their 40s
and 50s who have not undertaken formal learning for many years) to overcome
any initial apprehensions. The sessions gave carers the opportunity to
find out more about the course, to meet the course tutor, and also gave
us an opportunity to discuss their experience of learning and their support
needs, so we could really tailor what we were doing to meet carer needs
as closely as possible.
We now have 22 learners working towards the qualification 3 of whom are
studying online. We are working with the remaining learners in small groups
to meet their diverse range of support needs. 12 learners are attending
structured group learning sessions on a weekly basis and the remaining
7 are using the online resource and attending fortnightly sessions to
have contact with other learners and receive support from a tutor with
the work required for assessment."
Our plan is to deliver the programme in 3 different ways:
- 1: Exclusively an online Learning opportunity
- 2: Structured group learning sessions on a weekly basis
- 3: A mixture of 1&2 for those who want some contact with carers
but also feel comfortable using the online learning resource. Carers
will come together on a less frequent, but regular basis to have contact
with other learners, and to get support from a tutor.
 The
positive experiences and effects for Carers taking this course is
quite striking in many cases. We are not only seeing many individual
carers grow in confidence and competence, many of them are achieving
quite remarkable personal goals. One Carer for example had not driven
for 7 years prior to this course but was so motivated to attend her
sessions she has got back in the car again to drive herself to them.
Another who has always seen herself as stupid because she was told
this so often by teachers and parents can at last see that she is
not stupid, she recognises that she is a learner who responds well
to visual materials and is devising her own ways of supporting herself
as she goes through the course! The benefits and rewards of this course
can be far reaching and rewarding for tutors and Carers alike. It
has come at such a good time in relation to the increasing attention
to the needs of Carers it has to be given the support it deserves
throughout the country." |
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