From Obstacles to Achievements: Charles's story

A few weeks ago, I took some time out to visit one of our learners, Charles, to find out more about his Functional Skills journey whilst on an apprenticeship programme with Learnmore. Charles had attended our Functional Skills sessions and went on to pass all of his exams for both English and maths first time. At Learnmore, this is something we take a lot of pride in, when any of our learners pass their Functional Skills exams. Charles has additional barriers in learning/exams through being visually impaired, so I was keen to meet the man himself, celebrate his success, and find out how his journey was supported by the access arrangements/reasonable adjustments we managed to get approved for him with the awarding bodies.

On the day I met with Charles, he was at one of our immersive face-to-face workshops developing his knowledge, skills and behaviours for his apprenticeship standard, so after a quick introduction from his Workplace Coach, Mary Ward, we were able to grab a quiet spot and catch up on all things Functional Skills!

To begin with, I wanted to know more about Charles’s Functional Skills sessions, so I asked him to tell me more about how learning English/maths through Microsoft Teams had been for him. “For me, I use a Mac which has settings that are easy to adjust for visually impaired needs.” Charles began. “In Teams, I can also change the settings to focus on content which is helpful! The good thing with Learnmore’s sessions was that they all ran smoothly, everyone was respectful, and nobody spoke over each other, so it made it a comfortable learning environment.”

Charles was full of praise for his maths tutor, Jason, too. “I was more worried about maths than English.” Charles admitted. “However, Jason’s explanations as we worked through the topics were great. For example, I have learnt mean, median and mode in a way I will never forget it.”

It took Charles just five maths sessions to feel exam ready, and it was during one of the final sessions Charles explained there was a pivotal moment where he began to believe he could pass the exam. Charles recounted the moment: “Jason, gave some really good guidance on how to approach the exams. He shared a strategy with us of tackling the questions with the highest marks first to help with timing. This really helped me believe I could do this (pass the exam) because that was where I ran out of time in exams before.”

Hearing about Charles’s development in English/maths was great, but knowing he had also developed his ability to prioritise his time was fantastic. We had been able to secure Charles additional time in his exams, so it was pleasing to learn that he had used the extra time, which he needed to overcome his barriers from being visually impaired, in a strategic manner.

We were also able to have enlarged print exam papers approved for Charles and whilst we were discussing these, Charles had more insight to share with me. “The experiences in each exam sitting with the enlarged print papers were ‘spot on’.” he began. “When I did my GCSE's back at school in the 90s, I had a similar experience. However, the papers were much larger. They were A3!! This time around, with my Functional Skills exams, the text was enlarged, but the paper remained in A4 size. This was much better for me as I wasn’t sat there with a gigantic piece of paper!” Charles shared with me.

In addition to the extra time and enlarged print, we were also able to offer Charles private invigilation on a 1-2-1 basis. “Having the exams invigilated on a 1-2-1 level was also hugely beneficial for me, as I would have likely been disturbed in a group invigilation when others left the exam room (whilst I continued to work with the extra time).” Charles explained. Furthermore, Charles was also permitted the use of a computer to write his answers to the questions, despite the exams being on paper, and he went on to explain how useful this was for him.

Now Charles has passed all of his Functional skills exams, I wanted to find out how he was using his newly developed skills in the workplace. “I write a lot of Police statements in my role, and I have noticed just how much my writing ability at work has improved.” Charles told me, whilst preparing to extend on this further. “My punctuation was terrible before! Whereas now I am really confident, and I have noticed when I do a spell check afterwards that there is hardly anything to correct anymore.”

As we drew a close to all of the questions, I had a great feeling that everything Charles and I had discussed today had been really positive for him.

I was really pleased to hear that our remote sessions are an inclusive method of delivery, and that Charles was able to fully participate and develop his capabilities. It was also great to hear feedback about our tutor team to share with them the impact their delivery has, but even better to hear how correctly applied access arrangements/reasonable adjustments gave Charles a platform to achieve. Charles’s story should be an inspiration to us all, but particularly to other visually impaired learners who may be worried about their experience trying to achieve their English/maths on an apprenticeship programme! With an inclusive learning environment and reasonable adjustments approved by the awarding body, learning difficulties do not need to stop you achieving!? ?

[Picture: Charles and his Workplace Coach, Mary]

About Learnmore:

Learnmore is an established, Ofsted ‘good’ rated, award-winning apprenticeship training provider, specialist functional skills provider and consultancy business.

We have been delivering quality apprenticeships and supporting employer providers with their apprenticeship strategies for over ten years. ?

Learnmore aims to support and develop businesses by building their internal people capability and complementing existing internal processes enabling delivery of their strategic plan.?

Visit our website to find out more www.learnmoreuk.com