Elaine was employed full time for 4 years at Remploy, Bolton. Elaine worked as one of the Training and Development Consultants. Following the closure of the factory she found herself made redundant and out of work.
Elaine joined the Access Ability programme based in Bolton, which takes place at Bolton Central Library every Tuesday, which provides a regular meeting point for her and 15 of her colleagues. Elaine is a key member of the group and provides peer support in and out of the session for her colleagues.
Progress she has made……
… during her time with the project Elaine has engaged in a variety of training sessions including British Sign Language and Mental Health Training. Elaine then decided she wanted to use the time that she was out of work to ‘up skill’ herself with the potential of improving her employability for the future. She enrolled at a local college and has completed her ECDL Level 1 & 2.
Elaine then realised that she would need to build on this training and increase her potential of being employed in the training sector of mainstream employment.
From experiences gain from working at Remploy, Elaine’s passion soon became that she would like to continue working with disabled people with both physical and learning disabilities through the Dragon Natural Speaking Software.
After Elaine met with Esther Mcvey the Minister for Disabled People, she found that the she could access a personal budget managed by the DWP to develop individually to increase employability. This allowed Elaine to gain the required electronic equipment and additional training qualifications required to become a trainer in the software.
Through funding received from the Community Support Fund (CSF) Elaine has now completed one-to-one sessions on creating business plans and develop a personal budget to progress to Nuance Dragon Speech Training. Elaine is currently supporting follow colleagues from the Burnley Remploy site with the natural speaking software with continued positive results.
Elaine said, “Access Ability has provided me with the support and guidance to develop my skills and qualifications over the past 12 months. It has been a journey which now I feel positive and more confident about looking for work as I am now a self employed trainer. The weekly group session as well as the one to one support and training opportunities have changed my life”.
