As I write my blog this week, I have just spent the day at Birtenshaw College in Bolton, where I have delivered an inset day to 15 of their staff around building an employability strategy for their college. It has been a fantastic day and a lovely opportunity for me to reflect on the journey that we have come on over the past 12 years, from our initial work in setting up Bridging the Gap 11 years ago to our most recent project, setting up our Pre Internship pathway at Medtia and our Employability pathways at the Learning Centre, which act as a stepping stone for our internship programmes. At the heart of everything we do is our ambition to ‘Create Meaningful Futures’, allowing each and every one of our students to achieve their potential when they leave our trust. I am excited at what is next for us and I look forward to updating you on a brand new project in next week’s blog!

Now for updates from our students and job coaches..

The Future Finders have been out and about on placement again this week, very busy bees.

Josh has been working on the help desk in the library. He books customers onto computers for a certain amount of time and keeps an eye on each slot to ensure they are using them for their allotted time.

Liam is doing some online training after equalizing the fiction section. Equalizing is making sure all the books are on the shelves correctly and neatly, ensuring none have slipped off the back of the shelves.

Fahad is placing books back on the shelf that customers have returned. Fiction books are place in numerical order and non-fiction in alphabetical order – more on Fahad in a moment!

Mathew is still working hard at The Clean Plate Kitchen serving customers, making fresh coffee, refilling salt and pepper pots and generally assisting with the smooth running of the café. He is loving it!

Lewis is assisting students in their ICT lessons at New Bridge School and is a huge help to the teacher in a busy classroom.

Reece continues his placement with a local web design company where he is learning many new skills, although the staff are amazed at his knowledge and the speed at which he works.

This week we are taking a closer look at our placements at Oldham Library with a ‘Day in the life of’…… Fahad..

A day in the life of Fahad
Oldham Library

My name is Fahad, I am on my way to my work placement at Oldham Library with a friend from Medtia College, he also works with me.

I have been coming to the Library since September and I really enjoy working there. Oldham Library is only a short walk from college, I start at 10.00am and finish at 2.30pm. When we arrive at the reception, we have to get our badges and then go to the staff room..

We hang our coats up and then look at what we are doing for the day on our timetable.

The first job is to work on the information desk where I have to help the public to log on and check if they need extra time or any printing. This is one of my favourite jobs as I really like helping.

At 11am I then change jobs, this is part of what happens in the library, all the staff rotate and we only do one job for an hour and then change. I am now doing shelving and returning books, you need to concentrate. I am also helping Liam and checking that he is putting books back on the shelves in the right order.

Once all the books are put back, I start on customer support, this means I help the public with any problems they have, most of the time it involves printing and using the machines, I am now working on showing the public how use the self-service printers, rather than doing it for them, I am also improving my social skills and working on keeping on task.

This afternoon I help out upstairs working in the children’s library, returning books, equalising the shelves and helping the public.

Another one of the jobs upstairs is the online basics computer club, this is where the public improve their skills and we help them, I help customers, to log on, print, and find their way round the computer. I really like this part of the job, I am also improving my skills in typing and gaining badges as part of the programme.

This is one of the printers. I have to make sure members of the public have paid for the printing and then I can let them have the copies.

Well, that’s where my day finishes at 2pm. I am always last to get back to the staff room as I am so busy I forget what time it is! 

Invitations are being sent to our drop-in Parents’ Evening on Tuesday 19th November from 4pm to 6pm – no appointments needed. We hope you will be able to join us!

Have a great weekend,

Daniel
Head of College

You can view our previous blog entries here

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