The Wordsley School Cleaners from Stourbridge
The four part-time workers who make up the Wordsley School Cleaners Group are very clear about how they got into adult learning, “It started completely by accident. Just as she was leaving work one day, the Head of Learning4Life – Kath Tunnicliffe – overheard one of us saying that she would never be able to use a computer. We had a bit of a laugh with Kath but she was quite adamant that we would be able to learn. We decided to develop our skills to challenge the idea people have that cleaners are thick”, they say. “We felt a little embarrassed because we work in an establishment where literally thousands of adults have been taught to overcome their initial fears and gain access to the world of technology… We really felt we had no choice in the end!”.
Since coming together in 2005, the group have learned how to operate computers, access their training materials on-line, manipulate and input text and to form, print and save documents. Having completed word processing level one courses, two of the group are now studying a course in electronic communications and the other two are learning about computer art. “We’ve learned to support one another’, the group explain. ‘We rarely need a tutor any more; we now laugh and enjoy our sessions. When anyone needs help, there’s always someone in the group who can either help or be there to work out how to solve the problem together.”
And the rewards are tangible, as the group confirms, “Chris gained promotion to housekeeper. The site management spotted her newly-acquired skills and she now provides technical support by inputting data into the… IT system at Wordsley School for staff contracts and stocktaking supplies… Denise has a new-found relationship with two-year-old, Charlie Lee, the youngest of her 10 grandchildren: she no longer just watches, she’s actually with her on the computer… Helen believes in herself: she knows she doesn’t lack intelligence and she has the confidence to achieve further success. Tracy is changing her family’s opportunities… Her family are able to benefit from buying holidays on the net and snapping up bargains from e-bay. Computing is… so popular in Chris’s household that a second laptop is being purchased so that her son hasn’t got to share the computer with his mum.”