Charity sets up in Sutton to help dyslexic people's confidence and get into jobs

Well help might be available as a charity, which specialises in supporting adults with the learning difficulty, has set up a ten week course in Sutton to help people get into employment.

SID (Social inclusion and dyslexia), has joined forces with Portland Pathways, to offer people the tools to help them them overcome barriers.

Portland Pathways, run by Portland College, aims to help people to get into employment in Mansfield and Ashfield.

Joanne Youngson, product coordinator for SID said: "The course covers everything about building confidence and learning new tools to overcome the barriers using assistive technology.

"Often their confidence is low because of their dyslexia and some have lost employment because of it.

"People with dyslexia often need to read something three or four times, some miss out words in a sentence and when tired struggle to keep track of works.

"We mainly work with long-term unemployed people who find that literacy difficulties are making it hard to get on in life.

"We work on how they can also speak to their employers about it and how they can make them a bit more comfortable in the workplace."

The first session started today, Friday, July 12, at Portland Pathways advice hub on Outram Street, Sutton, and sessions will be held every week.

"Portland has a list of about 20 people who want to join," Joanne said.

"We keep the sessions quite small because they usually have low confidence - this is something that has affected them all of their lives."

SID also removes the barrier of spelling in the sessions by using technology, including speech to text software, to help people fill in job application forms.

What are the symptoms of dyslexia, how do I know if I have it?

Here are some of the symptoms that adults and teenager can experience with the learning difficulty.

- Poorly organised written work that lacks expression (for example, even though they may be very knowledgeable about a certain subject, they may have problems expressing that knowledge in writing).

- Difficulty planning and writing essays, letters or reports.

- Difficulties revising for examinations.

- Trying to avoid reading and writing whenever possible.

- Difficulty taking notes or copying.

- Poor spelling.

- Struggling to remember things such as a PIN or telephone number.

-Struggling to meet deadlines.

How to get involved in the course

Contact Portland Pathways, via email [email protected] or call 01623 499193.