Professor Brawn Café Official Opening (Pathlight School)

WELCOME

A warm welcome to the official opening of Professor Brawn Café at Pathlight School.

WHAT IS TODAY’S EVENT ABOUT?

Today’s opening is part of Pathlight’s vision to be a voice and model for an inclusive and vibrant learning community where lives are transformed.

It is part of our mission to maximise the potential of every student in both academics and life skills.

It is an example of how our educators and school leaders remind ourselves not to be complacent, never to stop learning ourselves and continue to improve and value-add to our students.

Professor Brawn Café is an inclusive worksite within Pathlight - to provide authentic job training for Pathlight’s senior students as part of the school’s curriculum to build important employability and life skills from young.

This café worksite is a significant addition to Pathlight’s unique blended educational offering of mainstream academics and life skills training. It adds to our other signature offerings such as a comprehensive IT roadmap and the artist development programme to ensure that students are better prepared for life.

Many of you who know us well, know our belief and mantra – that behind every glamorous dream or vision are a million things to plod on and do. ..There is no short cut. .Anything that is worth doing is worth doing it well.

Everything you see here is started from scratch. I sincerely want to honour the volunteers and staff who made this possible; and the strong support from our important partners from the Ministry of Education and other government agencies.

Indeed, I believe that the special education schools in Singapore are taking shape. They can become centres of learning excellence; and do Singapore proud.

WHY IS THIS INITIATIVE IMPORTANT?

Employment is one of the keys to a good quality of life. Work enhances one’s financial independence, self-esteem, social inclusion and sense of responsibility.

Worldwide, literature has shown that persons with moderate to severe autism tend to be unemployed or under-employed.

We want to buck this trend.

The best way to predict one’s future is to help create it.

Our experience in the Employability and Employment Centre (E2C) of ARC in job placements and support of persons on the autism spectrum, has taught us a few key lessons.

One, that earlier intervention and training is important.

Two, that with proper training and support, many more persons on the spectrum and other special needs can be gainfully employed and contribute to others.

The Professor Brawn Café gives us that platform to build critical work habits in our students before they leave school.

As a school, we know the importance of literacy, numeracy and vocational skills. Equally important, is a set of transferable skills that are useful for all jobs and across industries. These are the ability to understand work expectations, customer needs; meet the required stamina, pace and quality standards; and manage oneself in the areas of hygiene, mobility, emotional management and social communications. Once these work habits are cultivated from young, the chances of landing a job and keeping it are then much higher.

This inclusive café is also intentionally opened to the public so that job trainees are exposed to the rigours and the real life demands in the work environment.

HOW WILL THIS INITIATIVE BE IMPLEMENTED?

The café will offer training places for up to 50 students each year. On-site job training is incorporated to the school curriculum, starting with students in the final year in the Vocational Track. They can then move on to actual work or partake in the ‘School to Work’ transition programme, a multi-agency collaboration with MOE, SG Enable and the Ministry of Social and Family Development, in partnership with SPED schools.

Plans are underway to extend this to Secondary 3 and 4 students who are in the school’s GCE academic track and who are assessed to be suitable. They too will have opportunities for internship and job training stints in the café worksite.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We will continue to expand the number of job training worksite both internally and externally. The café as you can see is part of an integrated enterprise worksite, which includes The Art Faculty that develops artists and markets their products. Job skills such as inventory planning, retail services and digital marketing will be added to the suite of employability skills inventory for training.

We will look to engage more with the local residents and grassroots volunteers and grow this corner into a vibrant community space – a community space where regular farmers’ markets, recycling and upcycling programmes can take place.

We will invite other disability groups and hold meaningful disability awareness clinics and huddles for persons with and without special needs, and their caregivers.

CONCLUSION

Together, Pathlight and ARC wish to heed the vision of our DPM Heng Swee Keat to co-shape our future together with the rest of Singapore – a future where all of society embraces inclusion of persons with disabilities in all key aspects of life in Singapore.

Thank you all, especially Minister Indranee for blessing us with your presence here today.