Cath Mitchell
When Cath Mitchell was 52 she was forced to give up her job as a neighbourhood services employee due to ill health. Now she is gaining new skills to help her find employment in an office.
Cath has a form of muscular dystrophy which affects her mobility and in 2006 was referred to the Trade Union Education Centre, through her union Unison.
“I needed to gain employability skills to enable me to move to a less physically demanding role and I needed to access learning at my own convenience,” she says. “Online learning with learndirect means I am able to repeat any sections of the course as required and I really like the self-paced approach.”
Starting with a basic IT course, Cath then went on to take the Adult Certificate in Numeracy. This was then followed with further qualifications in IT including the European Computer Driving Licence part 1. Cath then enrolled on and completed the IT2 Word Processing course and then IT1 Computer Art (IT for Life) course.
Cath says “I feel my confidence in using computers has definitely improved. I now use the computer for formal letters, internet research and email.”
“Learning to me means that it keeps me alert, it keeps me up to date with society and what is going on in the world of technology. Hopefully it will lead me to finding future employment.”