UCanDoIT recently won a contract to deliver ITQ's as part of a Transition to Work project which is being part funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund and co-financed by the Learning & Skills Council.
An ITQ is the National Vocational Qualification for IT Users which demonstrates competence in the use of IT. It consists of a series of units that can be personalised. This is an important contract designed to deliver Level 1 or Level 2 ITQ (NVQ) accredited qualifications to 100 visually impaired/blind or hearing impaired/deaf learners, over 2 years, across London.
This is a new departure for us both in terms of accredited learning and working closely in partnership with new organisations in order to deliver the expected employment outcomes.
Once training has taken place learners will be referred to our partners for job training workshops and progression into employment. As many of our ITQ learners are using screenreaders UCanDoIT applied to create a bespoke unit and were given approval by the British Computer Society (BCS). This means that learners who use software such as Jaws or Supernova to access programmes on their computers can now include their knowledge as part of the qualification. This new unit, for blind and visually impaired learners, will be offered at both Level 1 and 2.
UCanDoIT will be working in partnership with the Royal London Society for the Blind http://www.rlsb.org.uk/and Dering Employment Services Ltd http://dering.biz/. Both will provide employment training such as help with CV’s, interview techniques, help researching vacancies, completing job applications and general guidance.
