Skills & Inclusion Courses
Do you want to feel more confident handling things for yourself day to day? Are you looking for somewhere that will help you get ready for work and adult life at a pace that works for you?
Our Skills & Inclusion courses are built for students with an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP) who learn best with a personalised approach, small groups and plenty of staff around them. You will work on practical life skills, communication and the things employers look for, all at a level that matches where you are.
Independent Living and Supported Internships
Pathways to Work and Independent Living is for students working at Entry Level 2, Entry Level 3 and Level 1. You are entered at whichever level reflects your ability and what you have already achieved, so nobody starts in the wrong place. Most students stay with us for one or two years. Learning is a mix of theory, practical sessions, visits, guest speakers and time on placement.
Ready to go straight into a workplace? Our Supported Internship runs for one year and is open to 18-to 24-year-olds with a current EHCP. You spend the bulk of your week in a real job role, backed by an expert job coach and a College tutor who support both you and your employer.
Learn the Skills That Make Daily Life Easier
Cooking a meal. Managing your money. Speaking up for yourself in a group. These are the everyday things that Pathways is built around, and over a year your units might include:
- Effective communication
- Working as a team
- Personal finance
- Domestic cooking
- Healthy living, with a weekly session of physical activity
- Searching and applying for a job
- Preparing for work placement
- Enterprise and community projects
English and maths run alongside all of this at a level that suits you, with the chance to work towards an award in both. Some students go further and join GCSE Maths and English classes elsewhere in College, which brings you into contact with a much wider group of people.
Know Where Your Course Can Take You
Past students have moved on in all sorts of directions. Some step up to the next level within Pathways. Others take a bespoke programme that acts as a stepping stone into vocational study while they keep accessing Pathways for maths, English and core modules, or progress to an Entry Level or Level 1 vocational course. Supported internships and open or supported employment are common destinations too. Our Learning Support team and Careers & Enterprise team stay involved throughout, so you are never working out your next move on your own.
Find your course
Vocational & T Level
Frequently Asked Questions About Independent Living Courses
If you apply for Pathways, we invite you to a guidance discussion. It is a chance for us to understand how you learn and a chance for you to ask whatever you want to know. It also helps everyone involved decide whether the course is genuinely the right fit. Bring a parent, carer or support worker along if that would help.
Pathways weeks blend classroom learning with practical sessions, visits and speakers, plus one day a week on placement for a term. Interns are in the workplace five days a week during term time, opening each morning with a short taught session before heading into their department.
Both programmes run with a high ratio of staff to students. Pathways gives you a small, familiar group to belong to within the bigger College community. As an intern, you have three people in your corner: a mentor in your department, a job coach and a College tutor.
There are no exams on either programme. Pathways units are assessed through a portfolio built from evidence gathered as you learn and as you work, showing what you have met. Interns are not formally assessed but do present their progress and next goals at regular review meetings, which becomes a portfolio you can use later.
No. Both are full-time programmes, so they cannot be taken alongside vocational courses, apprenticeships or A Levels.
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