Pathways Academy is CAE’s award winning training programme created in 2020 to give trainees the confidence, skills and support needed to kick start a career in inclusive design and access. Since its start over 70% of trainees are working in inclusion and access related roles. There’s a huge range of job roles linked to the access and inclusion agenda, including disability awareness trainer, access auditor, local authority access officer, diversity and inclusion officer, access consultant, access and facilities manager and more.
Pathways Academy is a great starting point for any of these roles as it provides a strong foundation of knowledge and skills. On the course, trainees have received two days of training, every month, which equates to 22 days over the 9 months. They’e also received on the job shadowing and mentoring from industry experts, matched to an area of interest.
Currently the academy is seeking funding for 2024 programme, if you are interested in applying please contact pathways@cae.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.
Learning with Pathways Academy
We know that disabled people face a number of complex barriers to employment, the Pathways Academy seeks to help trainees overcome those barriers by giving you the technical knowledge you need to develop a career in inclusive design.
The course covers a different topic each month including:
- principles of inclusive design
- access auditing
- website accessibility
- designing for neurodiversity
- access design appraisals
Trainees also develop the all-important communications skills to help them use their new technical knowledge, through topics like presentation, training skills and how to write reports.
Pathways Outcomes
Three years on from its 2020 launch, an interim evaluation report of Pathways has found that on completion of the
programme, 100% of students had gained a good understanding of inclusive design, while 56% reported they had a strong knowledge of inclusive design.
Pathways has trained 40 young disabled people from 14 London boroughs, giving them the confidence, skills and support to kick start a career in inclusion or access roles.
It has also won Inside Housing’s Women in Housing Awards and been nominated for Housing Heroes Awards.
Read the report to learn what else the evaluation has found.
Find out more about our trainers
Our trainers all have decades of experience and currently work in the inclusive design and access field. They are:
What do past Pathways Academy trainees have to say?
“Access, to me, was a bottomless pit of standards and regulations. It wasn’t something I was interested in, but the Pathways taster session certainly changed that. The programme has allowed me to pick apart inclusive design and see what interests me.
“It opened my eyes to the inaccessibility baked into many aspects of society, and it’s certainly made me want to learn more.” Nicky Sutherland, Pathways Student.
“Access, to me, was a bottomless pit of standards and regulations. It wasn’t something I was interested in, but the Pathways taster session certainly changed that. The programme has allowed me to pick apart inclusive design and see what interests me.For more information about Pathways Academy, email the team via pathways@cae.org.uk .
Our funder
The CAE Pathways Academy is part of the City Bridge Foundation’s Bridge to Work programme which aims to tackle the disproportionately high level of young unemployed disabled Londoners. The City Bridge Foundation invests in a range of activities to break down the barriers to employment for young people.