Nimalraj was a pupil at Woodfield School for almost 7 years. He started at Woodfield in late 2004.

 

 

He left Woodfield School in July 2011 after completing Year 13 to go to the College of North West London. As his College course was 4 days a week, he volunteered to work one day a week at Woodfield School. He started working with Mr Phillips helping with ICT. He volunteered for 2 years, and by then had also branched out by helping with office duties. His tasks at Woodfield included helping to fix and rebuild computers, install software, look after printers and photocopiers, edit images and videos for teachers, photocopying and creating workbooks for teaching and helping some pupils with their ICT.

 

After 4 years at College of North West London (CNWL), where he confidently developed a range of work related learning and skills. This enabled him to continue his learning journey with the CNWL working in partnership with; Brent Local Authority, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, Sodexo, Action on Disability and West London Alliance on a supported internship using the successful Project SEARCH model at Charing Cross Hospital.

 

Some information about the supported internship at Charing Cross Hospital

 

• The programme lasts for one year

• Open to students with a variety of disabilities who are motivated to work

• Full time teacher from the College of North West London and job coaches based on site

• City & Guilds Employability qualification, Maths & English embedded at every opportunity

• Learning 5 days a week within the hospital work environment

• 3  x 10 week workplace rotations to explore careers and acquire job skills

• Individual job-search assistance

• Ongoing in-work support as needed

• Outcome of employment!

 

Nimalraj started his job at Charing Cross Hospital in September 2016. He attended a thorough 3 week induction programme, including attending the host businesses induction to ensure he was fully prepared to start work placements in a hospital environment. Topics covered were; mission & values, how to communicate, policies & procedures, personal hygiene, agreement to report infection, rules of conduct, uniform dress code, food safety, health & safety working in a hospital, manual handling, fire safety, incident reporting and Equality & Diversity.

Nimalraj also carried out a range of work skills initial assessments and found out about the different roles available. He was then supported by a job coach to identify a work placement he was interested in and matched his skills base. He also had an opportunity to get to know his way around hospital, meet staff and get to know his workplace mentors.

After completing the induction programme, he began working started his first work placement as a Health Care Assistant in the Theatres Department. At first Nimalraj found the work hard and he was nervous. But after the first few days, things started to feel better and he felt more confident within himself about the jobs he had to do.

 

Nimalraj starts his day at 9am in the classroom with his teacher from the College of North West London, studying towards a City & Guilds employability qualification. Between 10.15 am – 3.15pm he attends his work placement, where he is supported by a job coach and mentor. He has a 15 minutes break and a half hour lunch break. Nimalraj gets to work with lots of different teams at Charing Cross Hospital, though he mainly works for Plastic Surgery and Ear Nose & Throat (ENT). To stretch Nimalraj in his work placement he has started coming in one day a week at 7am to learn additional skills.

 

 

Nimalraj’s main jobs include:

 

• Scanning the equipment sets needed for operations

• Packing up the equipment sets after use and sending them for cleaning

• Topping up the theatre equipment

• Checking the lights and equipment are all working in the operating theatre

• Opening the equipment sets for the nurses when required

• Supporting the surgeon by filming different procedures

• Cleaning the operating theatre

Nimalraj has been trained in infection control and understands the risks involved when he handles sterilised equipment.

 

Nimalraj says he works with really nice people. His teacher is Maureen McHugh and his work place manager is Otilia Beres, both are lovely and very proud of Nimalraj. He also has a mentor called Beverley and a coach Emily.

 

Nimalraj works in the operating theatre during operations! (very brave). The first operation Nimalraj saw, he saw blood and felt a little faint. But now he is fine. He does not faint. He has also been given the job of filming some operations.

 

If Nimalraj is not sure what to do he can ask his mentor Beverly, coach Emily or teacher Maureen who help him when he needs tasks broken down. This is one one of the things he learnt when volunteering at Woodfield and in the catering enterprise at CNWL. If you are not sure, ask for help and get instructions repeated to you.

 

After project search has finished Nimalraj would like to work at Charing Cross Hospital. If not he will now have the skills to work elsewhere.

 

Nimalraj said that his time at Woodfield School helped him to:

• Gain skills and practice in using ICT

• Follow rules

• Listen carefully to instructions

• Ask questions

• Help other people

• Be on time

• Travel independently