College aims to help special needs pupils get jobs

A college for students aged 18-25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which aims to help prepare them for employment, will welcome its first pupils in this September.

The Rugby campus of Creating Tomorrow College follows their other sites in Kettering, Daventry, Lutterworth and Wellingborough and was created in partnership with data storage company Iron Mountain.

The site at Symmetry Park will show pupils a range of different careers, including hospitality and retail, staff say.

Principal Gareth Ivett said their purpose is "to support our young people to develop their knowledge, skills and character to gain and sustain employment".

Ivett said latest national figures suggest fewer than 5% of young people with learning difficulties were in employment, but about 86% wanted to be.

"We know that our young people are eminently employable," he added.

"We've got a really successful formula, 100% of our learners go on to seek employment once they leave, I think that comes from the way we've designed our study programme.

"We embed our campuses within live working environments; in Rugby we're partnered with a global company called Iron Mountain that starts preparing the learners from day one."

The college has filled all bit six places for its September intake at the campus, he added.

Phil is from Rugby and his daughter attends one of the other sites run by the college, where she is about to go into her third year on an internship.

"We were very fortunate in that we heard about the college from a friend and, prompted by her, we went to an open day," he said.

"The college seemed to completely understand her needs and from the outset it was clear that they were seeking to support our daughter, we hadn't found anywhere in Warwickshire that was such a good fit.

"It was a bit of a breath of fresh air to get to talk to people who understood children with special educational needs and how to support them."

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.