Class of 2020 – what’s next?

As soon as a young person arrives at Treloar’s we are assessing their needs and planning for their time, both here and beyond Treloar’s. This includes setting targets, supporting work towards their Education and Health Care Plan outcomes and making sure they have the right support in place to achieve these.

Our students have a variety of ambitions, from being able to advocate for themselves and take steps towards independence, right through to gaining a degree or gaining employment. All students have a Multi-Disciplinary Team, including a Progress and Transition Coordinator to support students to develop the necessary skills required to achieve their aspirations.

We’ll be sharing a series of updates on our leavers from last year and the progress they have made.

Where are they now?

First  are Cory and Phoebe who, we are delighted to say, were part of our first cohort to complete a Treloar College Supported Internship. These opportunities are designed to give our students the chance to step into the working environment and build their independence skills, whilst being supported by our team here. Interns spend up to three days a week in the workplace, supported by our Job Coach and Personal Assistants, if required.

As you can imagine from March 2020 onwards, these have been hugely disrupted by COVID-19 restriction measures in place, but in the true spirit of Treloar’s students – they didn’t give up!

Working with the employers and the Treloar team, both Cory and Phoebe continued to access their workplaces remotely and took on as many opportunities as possible. Cory began at Enterprise and Phoebe at Challengers pre-school. Both ended positively. This is what they had to say about their experiences.

“The team at Enterprise were so friendly and I really enjoyed the office banter, they treated me as one of the staff, I learnt lots of new skills within the different roles in their different departments and built on my self-confidence.

Just going in to the workplace was an experience that I would not have missed and big thanks to the team at Enterprise, Treloar’s and all our supporters for giving me that opportunity.” Cory.

Phoebe added: “Unfortunately my Internship placement at Challengers ended early due to COVID-19 restrictions. So my Job Coach supported me with work sessions at home and with my transition on from Treloar’s into an independent living flat at Campbell Court.

I live alone in my own place with P.A. support; this was a big transition for me and without the internship year’s independence living skills support I don’t think that I would have done this. Once I had settled in, I applied to complete an Internship with Hampshire County Council.

I am now working remotely in an admin type role, doing lots of online training to start with and zoom meetings, it keeps me busy!”

How did their placements help?
Both Cory and Phoebe feel their Internship Placements were vital to growing their skills, confidence and independence and we’re so pleased to be continuing these programmes for future leavers.

Cory has gone on to set up his own creative agency CR Visual Arts, specialising in graphic design and digital art. You can find this here: CR Visual Arts | Graphic Designer (cr-visual-arts.co.uk)

We believe that, for our students who want to seek employment, they have a great chance to make a real impact in the workplace and we are pleased to see many employers opening their doors and adapting their workplaces to accommodate them.

Find out more and get involved
Click the link to find out more about the work of our Progress and Transition team. If you think you may have an opportunity to support our young people in the workplace please do get in touch with us TransitionTeam@Treloar.org.uk