Training with dyslexia: David Darbyshire

A chance piece of advice was to lead to a revelation about why school had been tough for David Darbyshire. He is now a tutor in plumbing and gas building services at Preston College. It wasn’t an obvious choice for him, as he explains.

Why did you become a plumber?

I left school with no qualifications and I didn’t have a great time there as a kid. There was no way you would have got me through the gates of a college. I worked on farms after I left school. I then started working for a plant hire firm, operating diggers, bulldozers and dump trucks. I worked around various building companies, digging in the trenches for water services and drainage. While working for one of the firms, I would go and labour for other trades when it was quiet on plant machinery side. I particularly enjoyed helping the plumbers.

How did you train?

I decided to bite the bullet and go back to college two days a week as an adult learner. Because I had been working so much with the plumbers on site, I got through NVQ Level Two with ease. I then started working for one of the part-time college lecturers/gas assessors. I completed my Level Three working for him. He had me designing, installing and commissioning complex systems. One of the properties we worked on had 54 radiators, four highline warm air heaters, two big bathrooms and four en-suites. It also had the biggest hot water cylinder I have seen to date. We used two 55kW boilers and designed a low-loss header. I would work out all the heat loss calculations, the pipe sizing and more. I sometimes felt like it was frying my brain, but it all worked out in the end.

How did you get into teaching?

My college offered me a job as a technician. I did laugh to myself thinking back to when I left school and my thoughts about education. I decided to take the job. From the role of technician, I worked my way up to be an instructor-demonstrator quite quickly and started teaching adults like myself.

The college suggested I might want to start teaching 16 to 19 year olds in full-time education. I thought ‘not a bloody chance’. But I did, and found I worked well in this area. I understood what some of these young people were feeling about education. Some were there because they wanted to be, some because their parents said they had to go to college and to either get out of the house or get a job. I enjoyed the challenge.

What other challenges have you faced?

College suggested I did my certificate in education – this was one course I really didn’t want to do, and I honestly don’t feel I got a lot from it. I found out why I didn’t get on with school. The college asked if I would be assessed for dyslexia and dyscalculia. The results showed that I had both. And then they measured my intelligence – and that was high.

Tell us about your current role?

I moved around different colleges to better myself, and then I worked for one of the outside training providers. I heard about a job at Preston’s College and decided to apply for it. I also like that Preston’s College have gone into partnership with JTL apprenticeships. We’ve gone back to the college teaching the knowledge, and the training provider doing the onsite assessments. I feel this will work well and benefit the students.

Does the CIPHE help?

I’m very much behind CIPHE and what it stands for – bringing up standards in the industry and the approved contractor scheme. But for me it’s the support it gives to education and the learners. A good number of our learners are now student members and can access the CIPHE website for learning resources.

Training

How to train an employee with dyslexia

Where an individual has disclosed dyslexic difficulties, discuss the format of the training and the accommodations the individual may require in advance of the start of training.

Individual dyslexic learners will have different needs. These should be organised at the outset.

Some people may have not disclosed their dyslexia and others may not understand that they have dyslexic difficulties. Dyslexic people often take longer to master new tasks, but once mastered they are well and truly learned.

*Source: British Dyslexia Association

This article first appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of P&H Engineering, the magazine for members of the CIPHE. Find out how to join here.