TAFE qualifications in disability

As I said in an earlier post I originally was working as a support worker for PWD but had to resign as a consequence of that work and because the Australian Government brought in legislation stating that all support workers had to have min qualifications (certificate 3 in disability studies) to do that work I decided to study through TAFE to get this qualification. This was started in 2007, I decided to do it externally because the nearest campus offering the course was an hours drive and although I could drive that distance it wasn't easy to even at that point. So Mt Gambier a regional campus in SE of SA became my campus of TAFE. I orignally went to videoconferences but also did some subjects completely from home. They send a workbook for each subject with basic information and practice questions which you can do only if you want to because they are not marked then there are short answer questions and usually a longer "project" or 2 to complete. Now this study got put on hold for 18 months and I kept in contact with my lecturer she told me once that the course was changing and that if I wanted to complete the current course of which I have about 3 subjects plus a first aid course to complete then I would have to do it by the end of June 2010. Otherwise I would be forced to redo about 14/16 subjects again AND I would have to pay again as well (about $2000AUS) and thats the concessions rate. Anyway so we started discussions about how TAFE would be able to accomodate my numerous disabilities and whether it would be possible in the first semester of 2010 to complete the certificate. I have had contact with an amazing lady who runs senior first aid courses who has offered to do it at my own home with just me and one other person. She has been fantastic and we are hoping to find a way of completing the course the biggest prob is CPR. I have since discovered that TAFE will allow me to have a modified assessment where I am allowed to do the CPR with the manikin on a table which is rather helpful and prob the only way CPR would be possible. TAFE shut down before all this was completely sorted out and my guess is that they will reopen while I am interstate but that being said the plan has been written to make sure that everything in TAFES power is done for me to get my parchment in 6 months time!!!!

Now obviously since I resigned from a support working job and because of my own disabilities I wont be able to shower and dress other people but once I did resign I talked to my lecturer and it was her idea to go to tutti and from there I worked on the idea of teaching viola and violin to PWD and setting up an ensemble to play in together so this is what I will use this certificate for which although not what its usually meant for what people use for is not set in concrete!!!

The only downside is that first aid is compulsory for this certificate but for the new certificate 3 in disability it is a requirement for a job but not part of the actual certificate this would make completing the certificate tons easier and I know with the ensemble I would need "able bodied" support worker or two involved who would have first aid anyway.

Will keep you up to date with progress with TAFE