Why Pathways?
- Make friends
- Gain confidence
- Gain more skills for adult life
- Be more work-ready
At Chesterfield College, our Pathways courses provide the perfect start for students with learning difficulties. Our courses are designed to meet a range of individual needs, build learners’ confidence, develop their skills for life and work and help them progress towards their long-term goals.
What is Pathways?
Pathways is a group of courses at Chesterfield College. On Pathways courses, we support students with learning difficulties to get ready for adult life.
We help with things like independence, communication and interaction, thinking and learning, feelings and confidence and getting ready for work.
We offer three stages of learning:
- Life Skills
- Getting ready for next steps
- Next steps
We can work with you to decide the right stage for you.
In Pathways, we try really hard to get to know you well. This helps us build a timetable that you like, whilst also working on the skills you need for adult life and work.
Our learning environments
Some of our learners work in the Turner Centre. This is a small, homely base, for those who need lots of staff support and find the main college a bit too much.
Most of our learners are based on the 2nd Floor of the South block. The groups are small, but you can be a bit more independent around college. These learners work in classrooms and do placements and further learning around college.
Our learners
Most of our learners are 16-21 years old. Lots of our learners have an Education Health and Care Plan, but you can still get on the course without one.
Our learners in stages 1 and 2 have learning disabilities.
Our learners in stage 3 might have a learning difficulty or perhaps just need a bit of extra time to get more confident with coming to college.
What will I do?
Life Skills
Learners do an OCR life skills qualification, plus Maths and English while they work towards their personal targets.
We support learners to work on practical activities, that will help them get more independent, communicate and interact more confidently, develop thinking and learning skills and cope with worries.
Learners find out about the world of work by asking people about their jobs, running enterprise activities, themed workshops and doing placements around college.
Learners are in small groups, to help them feel safe and to learn in small steps.
Planning for your next step
Learners do an OCR Life Skills qualification, plus Maths and English, while they work towards their personal targets.
They learn about and practice independence, communicating and interacting more confidently, develop thinking and learning skills and cope with worries.
They learn about the world of work through workshops, enterprise activities and placements around college.
Learners are in small groups to get the right support towards their personal next steps.
Next steps
Learners do an NCFE Personal and Social Development qualification, plus Maths and English while they work towards their personal targets.
They work on course units, theory and practical activities that will help them prepare for higher-level learning in college and supported employment. Learners are also supported to become more independent, communicate and interact more confidently, develop thinking and learning skills and cope with worries.
All the learners explore the world of work through our internal work placement scheme, and some are ready for external work placements.
Learners are in slightly larger groups as a step towards other more vocational courses.
The benefits of studying at Chesterfield College
- Work with staff who know a lot about disability
- Staff keep in touch with those who support you at home
- Small class sizes
Progression after the course
- Entry-level and level 1 courses in the wider college
- Supported internships
- Volunteering
- Employment
- Supported living
Meet some of our students
Ruby progressed from our Entry-Level Life and Living Skills to Hair and Beauty. She now studying Level 1 Hairdressing.
Ruby is a current Entry 3 student in the Hair and Beauty department. She did Foundation for 2 years and last year she shadowed Entry 3 one day a week, in a practical session.
The tutors were really impressed with Ruby and she decided to progress onto Entry 3 last year within the Hairdressing department. Ruby’s tutor told us that she has a fantastic attitude to learning and is progressing really well.
Ruby said: “I want to own my own salon. I have always done hair styling at home and recorded it all on my Instagram. This includes wedding hair. My clients are friends and family, or from the salon where I work every Friday.”
Nial and Glen
Glen tells us about his son’s progress over his 4 years at Chesterfield College on our Pathways programme for students with special needs. We’re all so proud of how far Nial has come and we’re delighted with his progression onto a mainstream curriculum course, well done Nial!