New skills, new methods
by Nathalie HARAR
Promoting the employment of the visually impaired presumes that we first commit to a substantial amount of work in preparation and training for this group of people.
Firstly, the training content must be regularly updated to meet the needs of the work market.
For instance, we all know how vital are computers to professional life today. Consequently, information technology has become an essential component of our training.
Currently at the CFRP, trainees in all of the sections (physiotherapy, cane-work and basket-weaving, receptionists and communications people, secretarial professions) all have courses in office automation techniques and learn to use the Internet.
If all of the sections make use of computer tools, one of them - the secretarial / office work section – has taken particular pains to adapt to them.
Indeed, our objective was to meet the requirements of performance and competitiveness in a plurality of skills required by companies.
We therefore bolstered our training in the use of the keyboard so that our trainees perfectly master the skill and we train them to use the main software packages that they will probably have to use in the work setting (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
Concerning the specific software, we teaching Jaws to the blind, and Zoomtext, a software that magnifies the characters to the partially sighted who so desire.
Each trainee has his or her own removable hard disk so that they can organise it at will and work with their own configuration to suit themselves.
We also work to enrich our training and put in place new areas of skills leading to the award of qualifications.
For instance, we have created a course entitled " preparation for work in tertiary professions " to provide those trainees who are as yet unready for vocational training with the necessary pre-requisites to allow them to join a section that leads to profession qualifications. During that course, they improve their abilities to speak and write French, their skills in Braille or in the use of other palliative tools, their typing skills and knowledge of English. They also learn the rudiments of office automation and communication.
For trainees of foreign extraction whose knowledge of French is poor, we have developed a " French as a Foreign Language " course during which they learn the basic vocabulary, grammar and syntax of the French language.
In terms of future projects, several possibilities are currently under study with the objective of diversifying our training offering which, because of the disability is too restricted, and to further promote the employability of our students through the addition of more specialised training courses.
Thus, we are looking at:
- Setting up a training course for travel agents
Hotel services: organisation, reception techniques
Travel ticketing: sale of catalogue products, use of reservation software, including AMADEUS.
This training will be put in place with the help of the A.F.P.A. based on training reference systems (REAC) adapted to the specific needs of the visually impaired: on completion of training, the diploma will be issued by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training.
In the case of the visually impaired, the C.F.R.P. must first verify:
- the compatibility of the AMADEUS software routinely used
- the definite intent of companies in that business sector to employ a person with this type of disability.
- Specialisations in secretarial, reception and communication training, via specific training modules, specialisations bearing specifically on:
- customer relations and the different telephone professions,
- advancing skills in the use of office automation tools,
- improving written and spoken English,
- the different forms of secretarial work: insurance, medical, etc.
Lastly, the telephone professions combined with sales, information, reservation or advice activities often require office automation skills. These are borderline activities between professions using secretarial skills and reception agent skills, which are expected to come closer in the next few years.
Teaching methods are also evolving in the face of the new complexity of the skills required, and the emergence of a group of people with these particular learning difficulties.
- We currently encourage
tailor-made learning and therefore work with individual objectives for each trainee. This customized approach allows trainees to work at their own pace, and enables the trainers to give additional explanations or exercises to those who need them, and to tailor the teaching timetable to accommodate individual needs.
- Elsewhere, our teaching options have focused in recent years on the
mediation of training.
By this, we mean any teaching action that confers upon the trainer the role of an intermediary between the learning situation and the situation of the trainee. It focuses on the individual learner, giving him or her a central place in the teaching arrangements, with the mediator having to adapt his or her method of teaching to the needs of the learner.
This attitude requires that the teacher constantly be in search mode, and offers as teaching aids various methods including the " Instrumental Enrichment Programme " (I.E.P.) that we use.
The I.E.P. is a programme for re-motivating and rehabilitating the learner’s reasoning power. It was created by Professor Feuerstein based on two basic theoretical principles:
- all individuals are capable of improving their intellectual functioning,
- everyone can optimise his/her learning with the help of the appropriate mediating teaching.
The programme proposes problems via a set of exercises of various types presented in different ways to become progressively more difficult. As they resolve those problems, the trainees are able to discover their intellectual functioning and enrich themselves with new tools for thought and action.
Furthermore, from the specialised education viewpoint we find that using this programme helps the visually impaired in the acquisition of mental representation. It is well known that mental representation is a determining factor in the development of intelligence, and the fact of finding appropriate solutions by using some of the exercises of the I.E.P. enables the students to overcome the learning difficulties that derive from their handicap.
Lastly, to help the development of some of our people (low level of general knowledge and/or considerable psychological problems and/or inability to mix socially) we have created a specific section with a view to preparing the way for their personal and professional integration.
In this section they study Braille or other palliative tools, typing, French, but also follow the I.E.P. programme intensively, working on the elaboration of their professional project and benefiting from in-depth teaching and psychological assistance.
Conclusion
This dual evolution, namely the multiplication of the professional skills required and the appearance of a public with greater difficulty, has caused us to adapt our teaching methods and devise new training arrangements.
Promoting the employment of the visually impaired through training, through the acquisition of real skills remains, in our opinion, one of the main driving forces for successful social and professional integration.
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