Laura Firth, Head of Student Experience, Exams & Quality at Northern Regional College said the College is continually looking at ways to improve the student experience.
“We are committed to ensuring people with learning difficulties and communicaton barriers have a good experience at the College. One way of doing this is to provide staff training to ensure they can provide excellent customer service and the necessary support for all students at the College.
“Initially the training will be undertaken by all student services staff, facility administrators and reception staff across all campuses and the plan is to extend the training to all staff.”
She continues: “The JAM card is a discreet way of telling people that the person presenting it might need a little extra time and patience. This is a simple way to help someone feel more welcome in the College which in turn could have a significant impact on their lives.”
The JAM card was introduced in 2012 by Now Group, which is a social enterprise that works to help people gain qualifications and life/work experience and support them to move into jobs with a future. It was launched as a credit card sized card and subsequently developed into an app for sartphones.
An estimated 10,000 people across Northern Ireland now use the JAM card. Northern Regional College is one of only two FE Colleges in Northern Ireland to provide JAM card awareness training for its staff.
Northern Regional College offers a range of full time inclusive learning programmes for people who with learning difficulties or disabilities to help prepare them for the world of work or further education. Courses include College Connect, Aspire2Work and Route2Work. For fursthern information click on www.nrc.ac.uk
