International Day of Disabled Persons Friday, December 3, 2010 - 15:09

Taking part in the International Day of Disabled Persons provided all interested bodies - government, the voluntary sector, the private sector and learning providers - with an opportunity to help drive measures to support greater integration for people with disabilities.

Adult Learners' Week award winners are strong reminders of how learning can help people with disabilities to make positive contributions to their own lives and to the communities where they live and work:

Energy2work is a unique project in Wiltshire which was set up to give disabled people skills to meet shortages in local industry and has led to impressed employers snatching them up for full-time jobs.

Energy2work operates as a local authority-backed staffing agency in horticulture, retail, food, biofuel and recycling industries, offering soft skills training, the Edexcel Workskills Working in a Team award and eight weeks tailored work experience to an initial 45 people.

Ann King, the ESF project manager, said:

"It gives them a challenging programme that takes them outside their comfort zones. Most had no interests or friends outside the family before this...Feedback from employers showed their surprise at the level of engagement and communication skills of the learners, compared with other work experience placements they had supported."

So far 11 people have qualified and the first four, including someone with Asperger's syndrome, moved swiftly into jobs. Employers attend training sessions to see how to get the best out of disabled employees. The learners also have a weekly job club to help improve their employment prospects.

Ann King added:

"Energy2work engages with learners constantly through social networking sites such as Facebook and texting. Most will move into employment of their choice, identified through Information, Advice and Guidance sessions and the Energy2work employment team."

Alesia Parshutsina, aged 21, from South Ockendon in Essex, is on her way to becoming a qualified teacher of British Sign Language, despite knowing barely any English until three years ago and being profoundly deaf.

There are few opportunities for deaf people in her native Belarus, so on leaving school, Alesia came to the UK and signed up at the City Lit on its ‘New Start in the UK' course.

Sian Reeves, her nominator and senior co-ordinator, Skills for Life, at the City Lit, said:

"From the word go Alesia had a real thirst for knowledge...I have never seen such progress made by a foreign deaf person new to the UK."

Not only has she progressed through the Entry Levels of literacy and numeracy faster than most students, she has also taken British Sign Language, CLAIT and ECDL qualifications and branched out into such diverse subjects as Thai massage, watercolours and GCSE Maths.

Alesia acts as a peer teacher in class, volunteers and works part-time as PA to the Director of Empowering Deaf society and is an assistant teacher of British Sign Language. She said:

"In the UK I have the opportunity to enjoy life fully, get education I am interested in and no one pointing the finger at me because I am deaf."

Kris Brown, aged 31, from Ashington, went from being considered ‘uneducable' at school, to an inspiration to the staff and pupils at the schools he now performs at.

Grabbing the attention of year 9 and 10 pupils in acting performances and workshops in school would be tough for any actor, but Kris takes leading roles, despite his physical and learning difficulties.

Serious illness as a child left Kris with disabilities that led to bullying at school and to some of his teachers saying that education would be a waste of time for him. But with support from his family he got involved in the Headway Arts Company, which offers such learners support to develop their skills, and overcame his shyness, lack of self-esteem and difficulty learning scripts.

Though previously hardly able to leave the security of his home, he now performs with other disabled actors. His most recent part in the company's performance of Lives Worth Living, shown in secondary schools in the North-East, was praised as a ‘thought-provoking piece on how we treat people of differing abilities'. It is such a powerful piece, that Performing Arts students at Northumbria University try to get placements with the Headway Arts Company.

Kris has inspired staff and service users at Headway Arts, as well as school pupils and teachers and wider audiences, says Headway trustee, Thomas Richardson:

"His hard work and determination have transformed ‘Kris the uneducable' in the eyes of some, to Kris the educator, mentor, teacher and craftsman."

Joyce Black, Senior Programme Director at NIACE, said:

"Globally, it is estimated that one in every 10 persons has a disability which hinders them from participating in their community activities. Similarly, the World Health Organization has reported that there are 650 million disabled people living worldwide, equivalent to almost 10 per cent of the world population, and 80 per cent live in the developing nations."

"Although these are stark statistics, our Adult Learners' Week stories illustrate just how learning in particular, can open up opportunities to adults with disabilities. NIACE will continue to work hard to ensure that future policies and programmes support and facilitate participation for all adults."