This, our first extended project, follows over 5 years of engagement between RNCB a specialist residential college in rural Hereford UK, with students from 16-65, and CSRP, a school and colleges in busy Lyon, France with a different age range from 7-21 or so. Both are providers of education and training to students with visual impairment with a residential component with cohorts from 16-25 who are "younger adult learners" studying academic and vocation routes to formal qualifications from entry level to university entrance and preparation for the workplace. Our differences lie in approaches to core skills of independent living, (which for any acquired visual impairment have to be learned anew) and the expectation of more intense and longer work placements as students put their learning into practice. Whilst RNCB has short term engagements with older students , CSRP has Ecole, Lycee and College, and in the older group include sighted students, a different dimension culturally. Initial engagements came from chance meeting of two senior staff who appreciated the similarities and saw how, if approached effectively synergy could bring huge benefit to the organisations, the individuals working therein and most importantly to students. Visual impairment brings challenges to both formal and informal learning as the individual is not able to observe and imitate both in their early years or as a young adult, and access to print and so to information is compromised. Even with effective working medium through braille or technology solutions students take longer to complete qualifications and for example will often have 100% time allowance in examinations where they may use a reader and scribe. this is also extremely stressful and tiring. In moving on to work, a new set of challenges and competencies need putting in place and reinforcing purely to access the workplace, and to acquire integrate and operate suitable equipment and software to demonstrate their abilities. The project will involve approximately 50 students and 10 staff and many volunteers in each of the two colleges by using aspects of the various activities in cross college and specific accredited curriculum linked work, some of this will be collaborative and over the extent of the project allied to to exchange aspects such as recruitment and selection, interview techniques and practical work placements. Four staff from each college have a particular role in investigating or offering aspects of their work where we think the partner may have much to teach us or to gain from our practices, and this will continue to shape the project beyond the first year and hopefully into future engagements. There is potential for investigating and developing outreach beyond the colleges. The present project continues these themes of making and taking opportunities to demonstrate ability, to evidence "Growing Respect and Opportunities in the Workplace and in the Home for Visually Impaired People" as ambassadors for themselves for our college communities, for visually impaired people everywhere (in UK only 33% of people with Vi are ever employed and many do not sustain this for more than a year). On a different scale the project allows participants as students and teachers, and workplace providers to explore and foster an international dimension, and to discover varied cultural habits and practices, attitudes and misconceptions, and to move through and beyond these through friendship and cooperation, professional interchange and challenge for everyones betterment.The extended nature of this three year project allows for greater depth and continuity, and broadening of the topic areas to be considered and taken further even beyond the remit of the project. Having found a partner with a similar brief makes so many aspects more secure when dealing with vulnerable students by virtue of their core disability of visual impairment, as both partners are familiar with this and the environments are appropriately managed. We seek to prove that by working towards successful work placements both our ambassador students from either side of the channel and their employers will acquire new found confidence in managing in the workplace regardless of disability and appropriate adaptations to access modes finding they have reliable, effective, valuable and loyal workers who fit in and complement the business.
Context/Background: A long alliance between CSRP and RNC continues to develop and grow, assisting staff and blind and visually impaired students alongside some sighted students with other challenges to extend experience of language, culture, and attitudes to difference. In exchanges they have been ready to explore themselves, and the opportunities offered to share experience from a variety of work placements relevant to emerging skills and interests, abilities and specifically to their curriculum. Staff in both countries have seen opportunities extend from the first simple in-house exposure to food and language, through participation in classes and now to work based learning, work shadowing and work placements in and out of the colleges, in areas relevant to studies or an individual's eventual proposed area of work. Objectives: Exchange of Practices is the main objective, achieved by impact on individuals and their capabilities, also on attitudes to varied procedures in either college, particularly on how students can gain from practical involvement in operating the project as much as participating in travel. Our three year project aimed to allow activities related to language, business, IT, and personal independence skills, by shared work often related to curriculum models building and growing from previous engagement. Staff-only visits early in the project explored skills in areas where partners considered the other is better resourced or more imaginative. This allowed those not otherwise directly involved to bring initiative and enquiry, expanding age groups and subjects explored. For students on exchange visits, and when hosting, there is no substitute for being challenged in new situations, being immersed in difference, and realising that the levels of preparation carried out have been effective. Participating Organisations: RNC and CSRP are specialist residential colleges for blind or visually impaired students. The target group is 16-20 or so. We have long worked together developing depth and reach and with succession planning in mind as sector change is constant. Additional differences exist in overall age groups, provision of ancillary services for the extended core curriculum needed in Independent Living Skills, Orientation and Mobility, Sport and attitudes to one's disability alongside preparation for integration into higher study, the workplace and wider society with skill, confidence and ability to put others at their ease. Exploring these areas together involved contacts with other service organisations highlighting differences in each country's approach to integration. Travelling members of staff are encouraged to further their personal development in the project context. Students who may have travelled more than once, for progression, often ask for to extend their experience. Visiting a foreign university to speak to subject and disability staff is valued, a student asked to play the cathedral organ to add to his experience. Main Activities; We explore several themes: - Staff visits for personal exchange of practice and exploration of possibilities. - Student mobilities to enhance language, explore varied modes of transport, manage change and difference, extend specific curriculum areas alongside French partners and participate in work based learning, work shadowing or work placement whilst also having fun with new friends and experiencing family meals at someone's home. - Involving other students and staff in hosting visits, especially the business administration groups and ancillary services including students who, through integrating the project into curriculum develop various mechanisms for managing our "travel box" of resources for all travel abroad, also brailing menus and timetables, issuing lanyards and keys, logging use of the Erasmus tablets, charging them on return, managing bookings and liaising with counterparts to select restaurants, book outings, get metro tickets, sourcing devices for interacting with pedestrian crossings. Results and impact attained; GROWTH-4-VIP has seen varied successes for individuals (students and staff!) discovering themselves through challenge, extending abilities thought practice, and influencing curriculum development especially around attitudes and preparation for moving on into a wider community of work or higher education and integrating into wider society, The role of IT was largely positive as it permits so much autonomy for those with sight loss, though some facets are not routinely accessible and some systems did not work well across countries, or with limited wifi access. Longer-term benefits: cumulative learning from long association, agreement to share a new Erasmus+ KA 229 project on Mental Health + Wellbeing. "VisIting boosted my confidence, generally and in my French studies. It has helped me feel ready for the future. I intend using what I’ve learned after RNC"