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We’re officially open – launch day was a success!

25th October 2022

Our official launch day was a great success!

Held on Saturday 17th September, guests were shown around the training rooms and given demos of equipment from our staff who will be using it in our courses. Visitors had a taster of the training courses, including the chance to try some of the equipment, giving them an idea of what someone might experience with speech difficulties, Parkinson’s, eyesight impairment or muscle degradation.

The taster sessions attracted many questions and gave much food for thought about what it feels like to be older, ill, or living with a condition that affects how you see, move or feel.

Investment in equipment means that we can give students not only the knowledge to care well for people but to really empathise too, by walking in their shoes and artificially experiencing their conditions and illnesses.

Being able to understand barriers to communication that certain conditions create, is vital to improve communication so that the customer can tell us what they want or don’t want, or get across something that we need to know.

Managing Director Garry Costain, said: “We welcomed many visitors to see the launch of the new Opportunity Learning Academy, to share with them, our purpose-built training facilities and equipment, give them a taster of how we do our training and invite them to ask us questions about how we can help them. “We have developed our training to be interactive, hands-on and effective in giving carers, whether they be professionals or family caring for someone, a real understanding of how the person they care for, feels. “This is always the first thing we do – because then we can change how we care and behave to give them better care that suits them. “It was interesting to see the reactions to some of the equipment that induces the feeling of some of the conditions such as dementia, sight impairment and communication difficulties. “The training taster sessions were busy and interactive which is exactly what we give our students so that the skills, techniques and guidance is memorable and relevant to them.”