London Advisers learn effective communication methods

Prospects works with a variety of customers, and in recent months the National Careers Service Advisers in London have had a lot of customers sent for support who have health issues/disabilities. It is important we all have the confidence to engage and build confidence and motivation with and for those with a health issue.

To support this, Operations Manager, Maggie Kerwin, organised a two-hour session for the Advisers on Effective Communication, led by Beans Training, a small, independent company dedicated to raising awareness of disability and helping people to communicate and interact with disabled people in the right way.

The session was delivered by Stacey Stockwell, a fully qualified trainer for those with hearing and vision impairments, and supported by Dr. Anita Notenboom. Stacey engaged with the Advisers to banish misconceptions about disabled people and to help them effectively communicate with any customers who may have a disability. Stacey discussed the barriers that disabled people face and how Advisers can support these people into sustainable careers.

The Advisers thoroughly enjoyed the training, including the session on fingerspelling alphabet and were able to learn an extremely valuable tool in under 20 minutes.

Maggie Kerwin, who organised for Beans Training to attend the Adviser Day said:

“Stacey has been able to inspire and teach 55 people to communicate with lip-reading and finger sign language in less than an hour. The teaching was practical, common sense and fun for all, increasing the communication to 90% without saying a word! A truly inspirational day!”

Following the training at the Adviser Day, one Adviser based in Sutton, South London, said:

“Just thought I'd let you know that I had a customer who was profoundly deaf this morning but she could lip read - we had a really good session and I was a lot more confident in communicating with her thanks to the training arranged at the last adviser day!”