include Case studies > Work-based learning
Case Study One
B's father died 10 years ago due to an
alcohol-related illness; he lives with his mother and has two
sisters, both who have successful careers and families.
B was an able pupil at school and had
the potential to achieve good qualifications and attend university.
His problems started through experimentation with cannabis at the
age of 13 and followed with amphetamines. B's amphetamine use
gradually increased until at the age of 14 he was regularly
injecting. His behaviour deteriorated throughout this time and he
was eventually excluded from school at the end of year 10. B was
not offered any alternative education and spent most of his days in
bed. He would spend most nights awake in his community with peers
drinking alcohol, using amphetamines and being involved in a great
deal of anti social behaviour. One evening, after a particularly
heavy drug using session B, with others, had obtained an imitation
firearm. Local residents who then reported them to the local police
had seen them. When confronted by the police B threatened them with
the firearm to such an extent, that an emergency response team
attended. B was eventually arrested and sent to a Young Offenders
Institution for two years.
B was first referred to
include three weeks after he had been
released from custody. He started e2e with
include but initially did not appear interested.
He was given time and support to adjust to life out of custody and
after a gradual introduction into e2e within six weeks he
had begun to attend a full time programme with additional support
from a local drugs support agency.
He enrolled at the local college as
part of his e2e programme and was given an introduction into
IT. He also took part in regular team bulding exercises and
achieved qualifications in Wider Keyskills and in Preparing for
Employment. B did not have any significant Skills for Life issues
but as part of his programme became a support mentor for other
young people on the e2e programme.
B stayed on the e2e programme for approximately eight
months before moving to the local college to study a full time IT
qualification.
Case Study Two
D, 17, was referred to
include in October 2004 because he was not in
education, employment or training. When he started at
include his mum had just been diagnosed with
cancer and Connexions felt that he could benefit from the support
that would be offered on e2e.
The purpose of e2e with
include is to tailor an individual development
plan for each young person to enable them to progress to
employment, education or training. Many young people referred to
include face social, personal or educational
barriers to taking up these opportunities and
include's aim is to help them successfully
overcome these barriers.
Whilst at include D
completed voluntary work with a Furniture Collection Scheme, where
he did various tasks including warehousing, the removal of
furniture and dealing with deliveries and customers. This enabled
him to gain a Millennium Volunteer certificate of Excellence as
well as training in manual handling and risk assessment, that gave
him an insight and qualifications in how to keep safe in the work
place.
D attended weekly Skills for Life
classes, only having time off when he needed to support his mum at
home when she had been for her regular chemotherapy. In spite of
the difficulties that he and his family were facing at home,
he gained level one qualifications in both Maths and English.
D attended a retail work placement and
with the support of the staff at both include and
work, D improved his confidence by taking on tasks that were new to
him, including dealing with customers, cash handling, till
operation, banking, telephone order and stock control and rotation.
D also had the opportunity to continue to develop his love of
mountain bikes, as he regularly built them up for customers who
purchased them at the shop. D was also given the opportunity to
attend his companies training days and on occasions travelled with
the area manager to help cover in other stores.
D embraced all learning that was sent
his way, and even when his mum sadly died in November 2005, he
chose to take limited time away from include. D
continued to attend the programme on a regular basis and had 93%
attendance (and 7% authorised absence). D impressed his new
employers so much that they gave him full time employment in
February 2006.
D is now supporting other young people
who come to his company on Work Placement as part of his job.
It goes to show that if you want something enough, then you can
have it. D is a credit to his parents and
include wish him every success in the future.