Charlie was a successful Master Carpenter until recently
suffering a heart attack.
He first registered with New Deal for Disabled People in
November 2005.
Although he knew he wouldn't be able to go back to work
immediately, he was adamant he wanted to do as much as possible to
enhance his future job prospects. "Charlie needed help with basic
IT as he had never touched a computer in his life!" said Lin,
Seetec Employment Development Consultant in Chelmsford.
Charlie was very nervous about starting his course and spent
fifteen minutes outside trying to pluck up courage to come in. "We
started with very basic IT, how to turn the computer on and basic
keyboard skills.
Charlie was convinced he would not be able to progress with
this. He was quite despondent as he felt that he was too slow!"
remembers Lin. Charlie had the additional challenge of suffering
from Dyslexia. After a few weeks of training and sessions at the
Dyslexic Institute Charlie began to improve and sat the New Clait
exams.
Charlie bought a computer to practice at home and by March he
had passed the exams for Word, Excel and Databases. Charlie is
continuing from strength to strength by completing Publisher,
PowerPoint and CAD qualifications.
Before becoming ill Charlie was always very fit and attended
the gym regularly, he also taught at the gym.
He has now started a fitness programme and hopes to be back to
a high level of fitness soon. Charlie has tried to remain focused
and positive thought his experience and has been an
inspiration.
Charlie has now returned to fulltime work (carpentry) and
hopes that in the future he will be able to find a position where
he can utilise his IT and CAD qualifications.
Well done Charlie!