Train or be trained

I am currently studying for a CIPD Certificate in Training Practice - I won't name and shame the college where I am doing this. To say that it has be a catalogue of disasters would be over egging it but if I say that it has been a complete shambles I would not be exaggerating.

My study group is now a committed group of nine individuals and for me this has been the one positive things about the course. They are great and all bring something special to the group. I have learned more about what I should be doing from them than the course material or tutors. They are so supportive and make me feel that it is worth continuing. But for them I would have given up ions ago.

I constantly ask myself why am I doing this?

The answer to that question is simple, I have started my own company and felt that I needed credibility. I specialise in dyslexia awareness and have worked in this field for the past 10 years. I am dyslexic and can bring something to the training that others in the field cannot - personal experience. I am able to embed the learning of what I deliver through personal stories of myself and my eight year old grandson Tyler - his is a gifted and talented little boy with dyslexia. His Educational Psychologist described him as a Porsche with the handbrake on. Watch out world when that handbrake is released there will be no stopping him.

This whole learning experience was going to be so different. Knowing that I have dyslexia and what my strengths and weaknesses are I set out determined that this learning experience would be so different from that of my school days. I informed everyone at the college and expected in return that I would gain their support. What I have discovered is that in my case they only pay lip service to learning support.

I have had three different tutors the first treated me as if I was retarded, the second tried hard but doesn't quite get it and thankfully the third naturally delivers in a very multi-sensory way that is conducive to learning. If only all tutors were taught to deliver in this way - guess what? It is not only good for dyslexic individuals like myself but it is good for everyone.

I must admit however the route of the problems with this is course is two fold firstly the course is about 15 years out of date and CIPD really should bring it update it. The materials are dated as is the research that is quoted. Our current tutor recognises this and does her level best to interject more up to the minute information and constantly points us in the direction to get better information. What would we do without her? The second problem is that the college has been remiss. Our original tutor sadly has had some personal problems which led to her being absent for many weeks. At this point the college knew that this situation was going to take some time to resolve and should have either deferred us all until September or found a more sustainable solution.

To be fair on all of the tutors I don't blame them for the disruption to our course that has been caused. The college took our money and in doing so should have delivered their end of the bargain and contracted a tutor for the remaining period.

The disruption to our course has left us all feeling dissatisfied. For me personally the experience has been hideous and I guess that I feel more aggrieved than most because I self financed the course, I expected more support and this coming on top of past negative experiences of learning is not good news.

If my company was delivering this course I would not expect my clients to put up with this kind of treatment and I would feel ashamed of what was happening. At the very least I would refund the costs and secondly I would meet with the clients and apologise for the disruption and be transparent about the issues. Obviously, the management of the college feel no such compunction to do so or have any real integrity.

At this point I don't have any great expectation of reaching my goal of gaining a Certificate in Training and if I am honest I am not sure how valuable the Certificate is given the course material. I'm completely disenchanted with CIPD, I was led to believe that this organisation was the leading light in all things related to 'Human Resources'. I have discovered that this is simply not the case as they do very little to acknowledge dyslexia as a very current issue for HR Managers. This said there was one article in their Personnel Today journal about dyslexia - so perhaps they are waking up to it.

In the real world dyslexia in the workplace is a real issue. HR professionals are crying out for information and support. They have no idea what dyslexia is or how to support dyslexic individuals, neither do they have any understanding of what 'Reasonable Adjustments' are. So many employers are at risk of tribunals against them for discrimination and this will increase over the next few years as more dyslexic people become aware of their rights and see the success rate and payouts of those taking their employers to Court.

The government spend billions of pounds of tax payers money on one initiative after another in trying to get people of benefits and into work. Yet they spend a tiny fraction of it on training up the practitioners in dyslexia awareness and specialist teaching techniques to address the problem. There are five million people in the UK without functional reading, writing or the ability to add up. There are also five million adults in the UK with undiagnosed dyslexia a further million diagnosed dyslexic adults. Funny that!

The government would not have to look very deep into these figures to find that a high proportion of those with no or poor literacy skills are dyslexic. But they won't look into it because it would ultimately mean that they would see that they have directed funds into the wrong areas and this at a time leading up to an election would not be good news for them.

I've just heard that Gordon Brown has his own blog now - so I am off to give him some feedback!!