| Home » Case Studies » StudentWorks » Education and Training |  |
| STUDENTWORKS: EDUCATION AND TRAINING |
Training methods
"Employer
surveys have repeatedly come up with a sub-set of employability
criteria that are attainable for students with special needs who have
the appropriate training. These criteria include qualities of
reliability, responsibility, maturity, confidence, self-discipline and
motivation. It is these qualities specifically that the program of
Studentworks is designed to develop.
Employers' single greatest request for potential employees is responsibility."
- From Studentworks: meeting student needs by Linda Farrington |
'Learning by doing'
is the main methodology. The workshop copies and creates a real work
environment, down to real workplace instructors, time schedules,
products and customers. On top of this staff use specific training
methods to make students with special learning needs ready for work.
'Risk taking'
is another explicit methodology. Students are deliberately put into
situations where they have to take risks which may lead to mistakes.
Because they do so in a controlled, training environment, not a real
workplace, they learn responsibility and self confidence. They can
rehearse for work by trying out actions and behaviours and learn what
succeeds and what does not.
"Too
often we expect students to learn responsibility by example. We set an
example and expect them to transfer that learning innately. However
students learn responsibility by being given it (or taking it!) and
running with it."
- From Studentworks: meeting student needs by Linda Farrington |
Identifying skills areas
 |
Studentworks
provides training at Level 1 Certificate level in a range of skills
areas. Up to now these have included welding & boiler making,
fitting & turning, retail, catering, spray painting, panel beating,
engineering, warehousing and hospitality. Their workshop program is
intensive, requiring 8 hour days of the students and more
responsibility than they are generally used to.
"The
trick is that we know where the jobs are. You couldn't just copy our
training programs elsewhere, you'd have to find out where the jobs are
in a particular area and run training that feeds into them."
- Michael Brown, Workshop Manager. |
|
| Brian working in the catering section. |
These training programs have been selected because they represent the
skills areas in which students have found jobs in the past. In keeping
with its evidence-based practice, Studentworks tracks the vocational
outcomes of all former students. It also researches local employment
trends and changes. This evidence is the basis of planning and
development.
Studentworks' managers and board members question how well their
program could transfer to other regions in Australia where there are
differences in the local labor market. It is the process of how it's
done, not the detail of what they do, which is the lesson to take away
from Studentworks.
Work ready
In each of the training areas students learn through real-life
experiences producing goods for commercial sale. They run a café &
catering service, a retail outlet for which they make and sell nursery
furniture and metal products, and organise and work on one-off contract
jobs for specific clients. They are used to the hours and pace of real
work and the obligations and persistence that holding down a job
entails. Their diverse experiences make them ready to work.
Multi-skilled & flexible
The range of their training and work experience, from metal work to
catering, gives students an attitudinal advantage in seeking work. If
they cannot get a job in their chosen area immediately, they are
skilled and confident in another. So for example, students with
boilermaking ambitions could pick up casual work in hospitality and
retail while they wait.
Students also watch the way their managers turn their hand to new work
opportunities. A general attitude of entrepreneurialism at management
level at Studentworks translates to 'having a go' at the student level.
Wanting to work
"'Everyone
wants a job till they get one. If people really want to work now they
need never be out of it. The workshop does a great job in giving kids
the will to work on top of the skills."
- Ray Sellars, long term Board member |
Literacy
"If
kids can't read or write we need to pick it up early. They are using
powerful machines and it's essential that they can read operating
instructions. We've re-written all the operating instructions to make
them clearer."
- Michael Brown, workshop manager |
The quality goals of the work and competency goals of the training both
require record keeping and written instruction. At every stage of the
manufacturing process students have to sign off documentation stating
that they have understood certain information and can do a certain list
of tasks. They also have to be able to read and explain plans,
templates and instructions. Reading and writing are daily tasks for all
students and because they are so clearly necessary for the work task,
students do not ‘kick at them’ the way they might in a classroom
environment. Instructors are aware of the need for competence in
literacy.
"If
a student is having trouble reading the instructions, I read them aloud
really slowly. I have to know they really understand what they are
doing and are prepared to sign that they know, or we waste a lot of
material and time. They all understand that the reading and writing
side of manufacturing is important but I don't want it to hold them up
either."
- Michelle, 4th year apprentice explains how she instructs younger students. |
Instructors
"The
kids see teachers as authoritarian. When they come here, they encounter
tradespeople, instructors, managers, customers. People still tell them
what to do but it's with the job in mind, not authority for authority's
sake."
- Michael Brown, works manager |
All work instructors are not teachers but people who have worked in
industry for up to 25 years. Their experience gives authenticity to the
way they supervise and instruct students.
Jaime-Lee Bailey, the instructor at Caféworks, was a former student who
completed her Certificate 11 in Hospitality at Studentworks, then went
on to complete Certificate 111 at TAFE.
"I
don't run it like a classroom. I try to get the kids to think about
things and make the decisions, like how we price food and drinks, what
we should cook, the timing of preparation to be ready for lunch,
hygiene, neatness and presentation. Some kids can't decide anything,
they are so used to being told everything. I forced one boy to decide
what we were going to cook that day. It was a big task, I can tell you.
He hated deciding. Finally he chose something, then I told him he was
going to make it! He couldn't believe he had to do that by himself, but
in the end he found a recipe and went away and made it. When he
succeeded and people paid to eat it, it made a difference to him, but I
certainly worked hard that day."
- Jaime-Lee Bailey, Hospitality Instructor |
Students point to the cappuccino machine when asked what they enjoy
about hospitality work. Jaime-Lee Bailey thinks that the cappuccino
machine is transformational. Students master it quite quickly and get
instant, positive feedback from customers as well as a marketable
skill. Jaime-lee tells them, 'If you can make a good cup of coffee, you
can find work anywhere in the world'.
Orientation program
"At
first most students want to come here because they think it will be
easier than school, where they're not having much fun. It's only after
a while that they start to see Studentworks has having real benefits
for their own lives. We want to get past the first stage and into the
second as early as possible because by then they're really motivated.
It's that inner motivation which gives a kid independence and
direction. It's because we are after this inner commitment that we take
so much care with orientation."
- Linda Farrington |
Studentworks' orientation program can take a long time: interested
students make between 3 and 16 visits, as much time as students need to
understand what the commitment entails and to make a decision. Only a
quarter of those who undergo the orientation process sign up. No child
has ever been knocked back once they decided to come to Studentworks,
though some have had to wait for a place. The first step is to sign a
contract that is co-signed by a parent, their school principal and
Studentworks. The contract sets out everybody's roles &
responsibilities (See Appendix 2).
Moving between the workshop and school
Opinions of a group of students around the lunch table in Caféworks
'School is the hard part. You just sit down all day and get into trouble if you stand. At school I just rock all day.'
'I never want to go back to school after the week here. In fact I'm on strike about it.'
'It's OK back at school because I see my friends and I get to sleep in.'
'I get teased by other kids at school. It's much better here. '
'I can't wait to work and earn money and get a car so I'm not interested in school.' |
|
Todd, Robert and Mark |
Students alternate a week at the workshop with a week at their normal
school for two years. From Studentworks' point of view, the week's
break gives students time to digest and reflect over what they have
learned. As some of the students' comments above indicate, the
discontinuity may pose more problems for the school than for
Studentworks, where the entire program is designed around the week
on/week off arrangements. The fact that enrolment is voluntary and
supported by a thorough orientation is also likely to produce students
who want to come. |
| top |
|
|
|
