This week has been a busy week of planning for careers and employability activities over the next term. As you will have read in my previous blogs, earlier this year I was asked to be a National Careers Leader by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. As part of this work, we have received funding to secure a number of careers related activities for our students over the academic year. Some of the activities this term include:

• Careers Carousel – this will be a full day at First Choice Homes, where students will rotate around 6 stands led by different areas of the business. These include construction, marketing and customer services, giving our students the opportunity to learn about roles available within the housing and construction industries.
• Employer Engagement Event – we will be hosting a training event for local employers on disability awareness.
• GM High – a visit to see a day in the life of a student at Manchester Metropolitan University.
• Volunteer Action – a talk about the types of volunteer roles and opportunities available across Oldham.
• ‘Changing Horizons- Building Skills for Life and Work’ at The Queen Elizabeth Hall.

This is really just a small selection of some of the opportunities coming up for our students. It’s a very exciting time!

Our students have been equally busy this week, as our job coach Bethany explains..

Week 3 of the term at Future Finders has been non-stop and has also seen us receive more positive feedback. Monday is our college day and In English we have been preparing for our Functional Skills speaking and listening assessments with Miss Hartley ready to be done before the February half term. In Maths we have been doing practice papers in preparation for our test papers and we have been looking at how questions are worded to help us understand them. In Employability we have been learning all about professionalism this week, what it means and what it is in the workplace. All the students gave positive input and feedback on what they think professionalism is and can describe how they are all professional in the work place!

This week we have been joined by two extra Future Finders students! Ellis and Dom from Bridging the Gap at the Royal Oldham Hospital have been here and, along with the rest of the Future Finders, have been learning about independent living skills. The group have created an amazing display showing what independent living means to them.

We have received more positive feedback from employers this week too..

• Staff from Age UK (Hillstores) have commented on how well Seb is coming along. He is doing really well with all the jobs he has been taught and is looking forward to learning more skills as we move forward with the placement.
• Tara’s new placement at the Clean Plate Kitchen is proving to be a big success and it was lovely to see the glowing recommendation she received. Well done Tara and keep up the great work!!

The last piece of news from Future Finders this week is an update on a new placement! This week we have been working alongside Reclamation Room in Uppermill and we have received a placement for Chloe! Well done Chloe, more to follow on this next week!

I will now pass you to Edward for this week’s ‘Day in the Life’ feature –  over to you, Edward..

A day in the life of Edward 
Administration/Café Assistant at The Atrium Café

I arrive at Medtia nice and early to make sure that I am ready for the day ahead. I meet all my friends up on the top floor and we talk about what we have been up to and what we will be doing that day.

When it’s time for placement, I get myself ready and head over to The Atrium Café which is based in the First Choice Homes Oldham building. 

I sign in and make sure I say ‘good morning!’ to all the staff before getting myself set up at a table with a laptop. Off I go with my first job of the day….completing some admin tasks for the café..

Once the paperwork is completed, I then move on to helping around the café. First job……stock take! I start by going through the stock in the fridge and the snack stand..

Using a clicker I count how many of the items we have and make a note of it on our stock sheets..

Once I have counted up, I work out how much we need and I begin to restock the fridge and the snack stand..

I also have to restock the take away cutlery…….it’s a bit fiddly but I get it done..

..and finish by giving the tables a quick wipe over with a cloth and spray..

I’m back off to Medtia now to sit with my Job Coach and set my new weekly targets – see you all back at Medtia!!

We now have our first Parent Employer Network meeting arranged for Thursday 28th February at 3pm. This group is being set up to bring parents and employers together to support us with our Employability strategy. If you are interested in joining us, please get in touch!

Have a great weekend,

Daniel
Head of College

You can view our previous blog entries here

Click here for this week’s news from Graham