Let’s show you what we can do!

GETTING a job is the ultimate aim for young people with a range of learning, physical and mental disabilities who attend New Bridge Learning Centre.

The Fitton Hill facility has a thriving community all of its own.

And young people who are acquiring skills in six practical areas are keen to invite members of the public to test their abilities.

The learning centre caters for students aged from 16 to 19, and was created with a £1 million revamp to the former Park Dean school. It has a beauty salon, a training kitchen and cafe, a horticultural section, a construction and DIY department, a vehicle maintenance workshop, and a hospitality section.

Vocational co-ordinator Roger Maycock is instrumental in creating courses to suit both the students and the demands of the workplace.

He explained: “The whole purpose is to gear them up to leaving school at 19 to go into college or a job.”

Horticultural students tend the learning centre’s gardens and grounds, as well as looking after an allotment and soon a garden centre.

The cafe uses vegetables grown on the allotment, and a shop used for training people in the hospitality sector sells the surplus and any other items made on site.

Students studying catering prepare buffets for the conference facilities at New Bridge School, Hollinwood, and young people from the hospitality section serve them.

The public can book in for a treatment or wash and blow dry at the hair and beauty salon, then pop into the cafe for lunch or a coffee and slab of home-made cake.

Students learning DIY and construction try their hands at everything from bricklaying and plastering to putting up shelves and making garden planters.