What is the Essential Skills Award?

The Essential Skills course started in September 2004 and offers provision for students with learning difficulties, aiming to improve the skills and competencies needed in adult life. The course is taught in small groups and is tailored to meet the student's individual needs.

What kind of work will I be doing?

The Essential Skills Award is sometimes taught through projects, which provide a theme for work over a number of weeks. Projects are designed to combine activities and skills from all areas of the curriculum and provide opportunities for students who are working at different levels to work together.

There are four subject areas:

Daily Living Skills: which gives students the chance to develop new skills which they may need to work in the home, enjoy leisure time and live and travel around independently

Community Life Skills: which enables students to identify areas relating to their own personal safety, health and well-being. In addition, students learn organisational skills and opportunities to have more control over their daily lives

Personal Development Skills: this subject area is designed to mirror Cardinal Newman's cross-college pastoral curriculum, which prepares students to function socially and economically, as a citizen, employee and as an individual. Personal Development skills are also useful in all the other subject areas

Vocational Carousel: this enables the students to try a variety of carefully selected practical courses

These include:

* Young Enterprise - setting up and running a small business

* Drama - communicating through acting and confidence building

* Service Providing - working around the College to provide services to staff and students

* Work Experience - a short period of working in a real environment

* IT/Media - a short course designed to enhance the student's IT skills, the emphasis being on fun!

* Arts and Crafts - a bitesize course covering many aspects

* Retail - an opportunity for students to run the College shop with staff and students as customers. Students will design and make their own products during the vocational sessions

What about Maths and English?

All the subject areas that you will study are underpinned by literacy and numeracy. At the beginning of the year you will have a simple assessment of your literacy and numeracy skills and some students may be offered separate classes in these subjects.

Who is the Essential Skills Award for?

Each application will be looked at carefully and a place offered to the learner based on the suitability of the course after a discussion with parents, carers, relevant agencies, previous establishment and the learners themselves. At the moment the amount of time spent at the College by a 16 to 19 year old is three years at College and someone starting the course at 19 years of age would stay for approximately two years.

What support is available for me?

During the essential skills course you will be provided with support from many different people:

* Personal tutors

* Speech therapists

* Social services

* Connexions

* Educational welfare officers

* Sociologists

* Psychologists

Of course, we also value the important role played by parents, guardians and carers in supporting you as well.

Where can I go after the Essential Skills course?

At the end of the year your new skills will be reviewed and we will discuss your future with you and work closely with other agencies to find the best possible progression option. One possible progression route could be to a Level 1 course.