In other news, I'm super proud of Spawn3. She took part in a webinar with the West Mids chamber of commerce and answered some questions and gave a little talk to 40 people, via, Zoom. She made them laugh, she made them cry and had them all thinking she was brilliant by the end. They couldn't believe she's only 14, a couple were disappointed as they wanted to offer her a placement or a job lol It was all about how businesses and training providers can better serve and include young people with S.E.N.D. Some sad statistics are, only 6% of these young people ever make it into meaningful and paid employment. Also sadly it seems the average life expectancy for people living with special needs is only 62 years. This was a bit of a shock to me.
Anyway she gave them all a lot of insights as to how they can all implement changes or bear in mind when they look to including S.E.N.D people. She was very emphatic that should they be providing a work experience placement they should make the effort even if it's difficult to make it meaningful. Young people on work experience want to actually experience the work, not be stuck making tea, tucked away doing the filing or washing up or tidying the stock room etc.