Student Profile (Male aged between 50 & 60)

Richard suffered from depression for many years he was attending a psychologist who encouraged him to go to the local literacy service to address his literacy difficulties this was 2012. He was extremely nervous at the first initial meeting and he started in one to one tuition. Richard really enjoyed working with his tutor one to one but it was obvious he had better literacy skills than he thought and so he was encouraged to progress into group tuition.

This was another big step for Richard – going into a group class. He attended a Basic English class with a number of other men and they all just clicked as a group. In fact Richard got very friendly with some of his class mates and progressed a weekly game of golf outside of the centre. He then attended an ITABE group where he was introduced to maths for the first time. Richard found he had an aptitude for maths he didn’t even know he had. In fact Richard was working out maths problems on a daily basis in his work as a building contractor so he was familiar with angles, fractions, measurement etc. Up to this point all the courses were unaccredited.

The next step was achieving accreditation. So in September 2013 Richard started Junior Certificate Foundation Level English class and Level 3 Maths class in which he was very successful obtaining a B in Junior Cert English and getting his QQI Level 3 certificate in Maths.

September 2014 saw more challenges for Richard he started a QQI Level 4 Maths and a two year Leaving Cert English programme. The plan was for Richard to sit his Junior Cert Ordinary English exam in year 1 and to sit the Leaving cert English exam in year 2. He also agreed to partake in the TV3 documentary series ‘Getting the Numbers Write’ During the first half of the year Richard appeared on breakfast time TV, national radio with Pat Kenny and in the local papers.

By June 2015 Richard had achieved and a C grade in Junior Cert ordinary level English and a QQI Level 4 certificate in Maths. At this stage this was as far as the Adult learning service could bring Richard in terms of his Maths and although Richard wanted to sit the leaving Cert in Maths all the BTEI programmes were during the day and this didn’t suit Richard as he worked full time.

Finally in June 2016 Richard achieved his goal of obtaining his dream of passing his Leaving Cert English exam – achieving a C1. He was over the moon he was the first member of his family to sit the leaving cert.

In November 2016 Richard achieved his long term goal to train as a One to One tutor. Richard successfully attended the initial tutor training programme and was looking forward to starting with a student in 2017. Unfortunately Richard hasn’t managed to start tutoring yet as he has ongoing health problems which prevented him from getting started.