we filter coffee, not people - skills highway · “when deaf people communicate, they are both...
TRANSCRIPT
Coffee Educators We filter coffee, not people
How did we get here?I thought coffee industry was inclusive until 2014 when I taught 4 Deaf Newlands college students.
Started me thinking about Deaf place in our industry
Started employing more diverse range of people
Why coffee?Coffee is an incredible catalyst for social change.
Cafes are a place where all customers should be treated equal...but are they?
Many roles within hospitality as considered entry level, not requiring formal training or education. Infact when you look at the target groups for high school training it is often the “trouble makers” or those who
“cant achieve required standards” who are put forward for barista and hospitality training.
Numeracy & Literacy...really?
I’m going to let you in on a secret...everything we do in hospo is greatly influenced by numeracy and literacy!
Orders, money exchange, recipes, delivery time, food safety practices, even the safety of the customers is in the hand of your cafe staff.
24% of New Zealanders live with disability
Globally people with Disability have lower levels of education, less access to healthcare and higher unemployment.
Largest most excluded and disadvantaged minority in the world
Disabled kiwis twice as likely to be unemployed and earn only half the weekly wage
Nearly half of disabled youth between 15 - 24yrs are not in any form of education, training or employment. 4 x the rate of non disabled youth.
Increasing number of our community here is Aotearoa suffering psycho-social disabilities such as depression and anxiety.
But what does this have to do with numeracy and literacy? Think about a barrier we can all quantify...like being Deaf.
One of the young men on the program, Alex, is profoundly Deaf and when I met him he had completed his level 3 studies in cookery, and passed. He was unable to get work at the end and as a result found himself in an endless cycle of rejection...and playstation.
When we took him on I employed him to work in the kitchen. Within the first shift I became very aware of the lack of knowledge and understanding that he had, even in areas such as food safety where he had passed his certificates. Where was the disconnect?
In the education. He used an interpreter to “translate” the lessons, but this person was not there to educate simply convert the information. So what about the learning by osmosis? I realised that when I talk or teach it is often directed at one person but meant for another. “Learn from my mistakes” This isnt the case with Deaf. Any information you give has to be direct and concise.
Started me thinking, where do we direct our teaching? Start with a group and add barriers, english as second language, dyslexia, anxiety, Deaf.
What if we turned it on its ear (so to speak) and taught every learner as if they were Deaf? Would we not create a more inclusive training experience?
This is what also made me realise the importance of training all members of the workforce to be more understanding and supportive of their colleagues.
NZSL does not translate directly to the same sentence structure, and often in writing it sounds rude and even offensive.
I want to share a quote with you...
“When Deaf people communicate, they are both simple and precise at the same time. When Hearing people try to be simple, they are automatically vague. And when they try to be precise, they suddenly become complex.”Quoted by Bruno Kahne who wrote a book on Deaf Tips – Powerful Communication
Why Employer Led?
First and foremost - I am an employer.
I am also an employer who wants the best from my staff.
It is important that my team gel and support each other.
For 3 years we have had trading cafes that operated on between 60 - 75% disability.
Was it easy? No, and especially not at first...but I educated myself, I learnt how my staff best functioned individually and more importantly as a group.
When you have a business where you are in direct line of fire of the customer we also have to be able to explain the actions of not only yourself but of others around you.
Customers asking Alex for tomato sauce -
Why not wear a badge? I don’t wear one to say I have mental health issues?
Want our customers to engage with us and that is done in person.
Engaging with Diverse Learners
Experience where one of the Deaf learners literally shut down, cried and would not engage in the process. It was too overwhelming.
Another Deaf employee simply completed the ALNATS using the “a,b,c,a,b,c” technique.
What is the learning from this? Are we approaching the ALNATS from the right angle?
Why are they being assessed? Will it affect their employment?
Different approach this year, online, self directed, opportunities to “up skill” and refresh.
Consortium Model
Connects on a role level rather than business model
Flexibility for training
Report to employer rather than rely on employer
Engage small businesses.
Employer
Provider
Learners
2017
2018
The purpose of the Collective is to create an effective model of training for Employers to implement into their workplaces, which specifically meets the literacy and numeracy requirements of their employees. We apply a diverse needs lens to our training and delivery which aims to equip workplaces to better meet the needs of their staff.
We aim to work with businesses to not only identify and address areas of productivity that could be improved through Numeracy and Literacy training, but to also to equip employers to broaden their recruitment to include a more diverse range of employees.
