Can you help our Supported Learning students with work experience?

Part of the qualification (New Zealand Certificate in Skills for Living and Working) requires the students to complete 2.45 hours of work placement a week, for up to 20 weeks. Usually by now placements have been found for the second year students, in various local businesses and on campus.

Those businesses that have supported this programme in the past are now very cautious about committing to taking on a student, as they can’t guarantee the work, the safety or the hours.

To safeguard against this uncertainty, the team has decided to try and place all of this year’s students into work on campus (28 students). We have had many in placements at Mt Albert campus previously, which have included assisting with gardening, looking after our indoor plants, cleaning and maintaining the animal unit, mail/courier deliveries, and doing a range of administration/ support tasks in different Schools. There’s more on this in our Nest post – Supported Learning students use their Unitec work experience as a springboard to employment.

What can you do?

Please consider if you have a regular position for a neuro-diverse student (i.e. student with disability, special needs) for a few hours each week for up to 20 weeks.

Have a chat with your team for their input and discuss some of the roles these students have completed on campus previously (as outlined above) for inspiration.

The spectrum of ability of the students means that they may complete tasks as sophisticated or as simple as you can provide. Please do not think that a regular task may be too simple or complex for these students! The Supported Learning team will allocate ability to the task you present and provide the relevant training.

These are some of the parameters to consider:

• Regular work (once a week)
• Up to three hours per week
• Supervised in some capacity (someone in the building/space at a minimum)
• A staff member who is willing to fill a one-page log book once a week
• Somone to provide the occasional instruction and feedback
• Placement would begin in Semester 2 (after the July break)

If you think you may have some suitable regular work please contact Dave Hicks or call Dave on 021907284 if you have any questions or would like to discuss a work idea.

You can find out more about our Supported Learning programme and some of the students in these Nest posts:

• Supported Learning whanaungatanga evening, creating connections and shared experiences
• David Bell: Supported Learning superstar and champion powerlifter
• Supported Learning students use their Unitec work experience as a springboard to employment