Education Services

City and Hackney Mind’s education service is the sole provider of basic and advanced literary courses for those with mental health issues in our catchment area. We support our students to gain the skills necessary to live effective lives and manage their affairs competently.

ESOL

English for speakers of other languages
This course is for beginners. In this class students will be taught: reading, writing, listening, speaking and grammar skills. There will be City and Guilds exams for the students to complete and room for them to progress as their level of English increases.

Literacy

Entry Level: This is a class for people who have difficulty with reading and writing. They may have not enjoyed school, or had a condition that has made it difficult to stay in education. Our course helps people to read, write and spell and teaches this in a way that is relevant to their lives.

Level 1/Level 2: This is a class for people who may be able to read and write to a reasonable level, but still have some difficulty, or who have no qualifications. We can help learners take the National Test, which is equivalent to GCSE at Level 2. This means people are able to get a qualification that can help them to get work, or move on to further education.

Numeracy

Entry level: This is a class for people who need help with their maths skills. It is a practical course for the beginner and intermediate level learners. All courses lead to a City & Guilds qualification.

Level 1/Level 2: This is a class for people who have some understanding of maths but no qualifications. It is a higher level class that will help learners increase their maths skills, and leads to a qualification equivalent to GCSE.

IT

We have a long tradition of providing courses for learners who have experienced mental health difficulties. All our classes are small and friendly and our tutors are very welcoming, and familiar with any difficulties encountered by learners with mental health issues. All our courses (except Introduction to Computing) give learners the chance to get a national qualification.

There are a number of IT courses available:

• Introduction to Computing - for complete beginners
• OCR Entry Level 3 Award for IT Users (Using ICT E3)
• OCR ITQ Level 1 Award for ITQ Users
• OCR ITQ Level 2 Award for ITQ Users

CLAIT stands for Computer Literacy and Information Technology and is a nationally recognised course. If you pass a CLAIT course it shows employers you can use the main applications on a computer. CLAIT is available at levels 1 and 2. If you're a beginner, Level 1 may be suitable for you; if you're an intermediate computer user level 2 may be more suitable.

Each CLAIT qualification level offers different units. Each level has one compulsory unit and several optional units. If you study the compulsory unit and two optional ones you get a Certificate qualification. If you study the compulsory unit and four optional ones you get a Diploma qualification. You can also take the units separately – they're qualifications in their own right and you can get a certificate for any you complete.

Further details can be found on our application form