Student success rate high
The classroom in Unit 1 at Witt in New Plymouth has the look of a school room.
It’s a place of transition for students who have learning disabilities. There they learn health and safety, literacy and numeracy, computing, banking and budgeting, cooking, living and work skills. While the current Star course provides a transition between school and tertiary, Vocational Skills is a bridge between tertiary education and employment. All students enrolled in Effective Work practice participate in work experience placements throughout the year.
Blair Rowlands, who is confronting autism and anxiety, has achieved the Certificate in Vocational Skills but is one paper shy of completing the second year extension strand of Independent Living, also run by Vocational Skills. He has moved on to Life Skills Taranaki in Manadon St, where he is under the wing of another former Witt graduate and tutor, Stewart Filbee.
Blair is one of 69 clients at Life Skills, which continues him on a pathway to independence. He takes a bus twice a week from Hawera using the Hawera-NP Connector to attend Life Skills where he is exposed to a mixture of exercise, work and socialising.
The 21-year-old was born in Hawera and was at Opunake High before going boarding in Christchurch.
Ask about his experience at Witt and Life Skills Taranaki and he will tell you it has been a positive journey for him.
Programme co-ordinator Jane Slinger believes despite the fact her department liaises with schools and government departments, many potential students don’t tap into the learning resource because they don’t know about it.
‘‘Fortunately, and certainly for the first half of a year, it doesn’t matter if a student has not enrolled by the time courses start – we are able to take on students through the year, and many of them elect to take a selection of the programmes rather than all of it to help get up to speed. Often this makes it easier for learners to fit learning around other commitments such as part-time work’’
The course caters for students of any age 16 and over and enrols a significant percentage of adults. The main prerequisite is that students are able to function reasonably independently within the tertiary environment. The success rate for Witt is high.