CERTIFICATE PROGRAMME

Functional Social Communication and Language Skills:

This module will focus on developing Functional English and Social Communication skills.

The Functional English course covers everyday word skills including reading and understanding texts, such as forms, newspapers, applications, letters and other forms of written information. Some features of writing such as spelling, punctuation and grammar are also covered. It also includes presentation skills preparing students for use of language for different purposes including requesting, questioning, clarifying, complaining, discussing etc. It will focus on building confidence and competence in functional communication settings.

The Social Communication skills course will be run by a speech and language therapists and will focus on developing each student’s communication skills both in terms of their functional language, in understanding and expression, but also in terms of their use of language for different communicative p urposes. These sessions will also focus on foundational skills for social cognition such as theory of mind, central cohesion and executive functioning.

Independence and Self-Care:

This module will focus on developing functional numeracy, self-care and presentation and independence skills.

This course will look at numeracy skills in everyday situations and focus on understanding the situation, choosing an appropriate approach to tackle the problem, gathering relevant information/resources, using a Maths approach in a step-by-step manner, interpreting and identifying results as well as communicating the results. The sessions will equip each student with augmentative systems to support their handling of numeracy and finance in functional settings.

The self-care and presentation skills sessions will focus on self awareness and awareness of others. They will look at building a sense of self, looking at awareness of personal presentation and confidence in self-care and choice making. This will include personal hygiene and grooming.

The independence sessions will teach students in making financial choices, managing their own belongings, health and well-being, practical cooking skills, preparing for the world of work, travelling safely and successfully.

Employability

The employability skills sessions take an activity-based approach to raising learners’ awareness about employer expectations and the working environment. They provide a programme of activities to support learners in preparation for vocational training, for achieving an employability qualification, or for getting a job. The employability skills sessions include activities designed to develop learners’ skills in 12 areas: self-management; team work; business and enterprise; customer awareness; problem solving; communication; working with numbers; IT in the workplace; applying for a job; exploring job opportunities; responsibilities at work; and health and safety in the workplace.

Student Specialisation (Elective)

Students can choose from one of the following courses:

• Catering
• Art and Design
• Photography
• Sports and Fitness
• Hair and Beauty
• Information Technology

These courses will be conducted in conjunction with specialists from the field to help students develop specific skills required in the area.

JACKIE HARLAND, Speech and Language Therapist

Jackie Harland is an experienced speech and language therapist with a Masters in early childhood education. She has set up centres and early years provisions in London, Dubai, Lahore and now the London Learning Centre in Delhi in conjunction with Pooja Talwar. She has co-written an early years curriculum, an accredited postgraduate certificate program for teachers, and screening software that is used in the UK and internationally. Jackie is passionate to see students with additional needs receive the best evidence based support and go on to achieve their ambitions.