Dearne Valley College Attends Rotherham Careers Event
As part of National Careers Week, Dearne Valley College recently attended the Rotherham Careers and Supported Internship Event at Magna Science Adventure Centre to provide local people with special educational needs or disabilities with advice and guidance on courses and supported internships available to them at the College.
The bustling event, which was organised by Newman School, attracted a large audience with a mix of parents, young people and school groups.
Newman School’s Headteacher Paul Silvester organised the event and delivered several talks to visitors at the event around the range of options available in the local area.
Paul said: “We identified that there was no careers event specifically targeted at young people with special needs. We felt that gap needed to be filled so we put on this event to tie in with National Careers Week; I’ve been really chuffed with the amount of people that have come to the event.
“The employment rate for special needs children is very low; about 7% of young people with special needs go into employment and that number could be even lower. We do some terrific work in Rotherham to provide opportunities for these young people including supported internship programmes.
“Today was about outlining the number of options that young people with special needs can access if they knew about them – whether that’s study options, supported internships or eventually paid employment.”
Dearne Valley College Recruitment and Events Officer Rebecca Hepworth was on hand at the event to offer valuable advice and outline the opportunities available at the College.
Rebecca said: “We’ve had a lot of interest in our courses. But we’ve had lots of people asking about our supported internships which offer people with special educational needs and disabilities the opportunity to undertake an unpaid placement with an employer and gain valuable work experience.”
Find out more about the range of support available for students at Dearne Valley College.