Partnering 4 Success - Michelle's Diary
Pictured left to right - Esa, Sarah, Ian and Michelle
I want to say first that Esa was a fabulous host and that nothing was too much trouble for him. He obviously wanted to make our visit as comfortable, interesting, informative and enjoyable as possible. It was apparent that he worked very hard to make the Finland Mobility meeting a real success.
I found the area of Finland that we visited extremely beautiful and picturesque. I also found the Finnish people to be very friendly and easy going. Maybe this is something to do with the vast amount of countryside and the small population!
For me the most interesting and useful day was the first day. This involved a visit and talk at Luovi Vocational College and a Laundry Service which is a social enterprise.
Although education for people with learning disabilities is not my specialism, I could still see that their methods are very impressive. The students can obtain vocational qualifications in a variety of industries, depending on their chosen career path. The programmes are tailored to their individual needs with the aim of seeing them progress into future paid employment. And the statistics show that a third of the students at the college go on to become paid employees in the community.
Luovi is the largest vocational special education college in Finland. Even so, it only has a limited amount of places and is very selective when taking new learners. They try to ensure that Luovi is the right place for someone to come and that each person there is motivated to work. Luovi also prepares people for the future by providing help and support for independent living on the college site. That`s why during term time, while away from home, many people live in a shared flat.
I feel that doing all this training in vocational and independent living together at the same time in one supportive place must help a person greatly preparing for the future. It also seems to be an enjoyable experience and builds people`s confidence immensely.
The laundry service we visited in the afternoon was a fabulously positive experience. Before the tour there was a talk from the manager but this was rather difficult to understand as he had only had limited English which made things quite confusing. But despite this, the laundry site tour told us what we needed to know. They employ roughly 35 people doing various jobs on a variety of contracted hours, and everyone is a paid employee. No one goes there on work experience because all preparatory training has been done beforehand somewhere else. The machinery and processes they use are quite simple but they are effective and efficient. The work was done on a kind of production line system where everyone had a task and they all knew exactly what they were doing. To me, all the staff there seemed happy.
Overall, the visit to the laundry was an inspiring experience, and I`m left thinking that I would have liked to have the chance to see more of these supported employment companies and the work they do across different industries.
Michelle Barlow, Employment Consultant, Pluss
