Having recently been made redundant, and with little chance of being employed in the industry again, I have been advised to consider further training.
I am a hearing impaired graduate of the Open University, with a degree structure in maths, science and technology, who side-stepped once to do “Issues in Deafness”. In my youth there was the chance to become a technical teacher for deaf people but I didn’t take it up and now, at my age, I don’t believe that teaching is a viable option.
I have taken basic Sign Supported English at night school, but since there is no active association with the Deaf, this training lies dormant. I would like to work with deaf people – perhaps as a communicator – but I really don’t know ‘what’s out there’ in terms of courses, duration and fees.
Yours, Wondering
Dear Wondering,
Are you able to take advantage of your firm’s ‘outplacement’ facilities as part of the redundancy package? Often they are not offered to deaf employees as the firm can feel they have nothing to offer, so do ask. The time can then be used to research ‘what is out there’. You can, of course, do this from home and I strongly suggest you research widely and see as many people as possible.
Ask yourself: do I want to work in education? social services? the charity field (the voluntary sector)? You can then look at the jobs available in each and match these to your skills. For example, in further education you could be a lecturer in technology or a support tutor (a communicator may be more difficult as you need to be able to hear well enough to transcribe lectures.) Investigate what is happening in your local social services. Are there vacancies for social work assistants, technical officers, outreach workers for hard of hearing people etc.?
Go and see as many people as you can so that you begin to see a wider picture of what is out there in terms of jobs, training, costs, etc. and also what you can usefully offer. Good luck!
Yours, Laraine
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