Today’s post comes courtesy of Meena Lacey, our head of care, who shares her favourite story about MindLeaders elearning in the world of social care
During an induction for a new member of the MindLeaders team, one of the areas that I love to introduce to my colleagues is the sheer variety of the social care world.
When people think of the care sector often the first image that comes to mind is of an elderly care home setting, but there are many other service groups to think about. One highly rewarding area, for example, is the learning disability world. I’m always proud to show new team members the role that our elearning courses and learning services play in facilitating the fantastic work that social care providers undertake in this space up and down the country.
And over our thirty years as a training provider, we’ve seen the care model change for the better. Many years ago, those with learning disabilities were locked away in institutions and ostracised from society as part of a highly exclusive social care model.
Nowadays, the social care model is far more inclusive. Instead of shutting them away from the outside world, we have support workers who endeavour to enable those with learning disabilities to participate in society as much as possible.
In our opinion, elearning can be one way for those with learning disabilities to participate and build their confidence by discovering their own potential. We firmly believe that everyone should have access to learning, which is why we offer our courses free of charge to our partners’ service users. I’d like to share with you the story of Nick, a young service user who attends a Voyage day service:
“Recently Caroline, the senior at the service, asked me if I would like to complete some training courses on the internet, as I am a bit of a whizz on the computer I jumped at the chance. I enrolled myself with Third Force training company [now MindLeaders] and was given my own users name and password. Caroline helped me to log on the computer (although I think I was helping her more!) and we were away I decided I would like to do Food Hygiene first. I spent four one hour sessions on the computer and passed each test first time. I am very proud of my achievement, but there is one drawback and that is now all the staff want me to help them to complete their food hygiene training!”
Nick’s story may not be a huge headline or the basis for a big press release about corporate social responsibility, but I do think that his outstanding success shows that as an elearning company, in a day-to-day way we really can live our values and “change lives through learning”.
