Tommy Dawkins joins Empowering Dyslexia webinar
GMB Officer Tommy Dawkins MBE, who recently featured in a Channel 4 series about literacy skills, will be joining Roy Watkins and Kathleen Jowitt for the unionlearn webinar “Empowering Dyslexic Learners” next week.
Tommy is well known to union learning reps after a powerful speech to the unionlearn Annual Conference in 2016 about his struggle with words, and how he now uses his experience to support workplace learners.
Tommy is a former union learning rep who, after making the decision to face his own reading and writing issues, wanted to support colleagues in Stoke on Trent’s potteries and was awarded an MBE in 2002 for services to life-long learning.
This September Tommy featured in The Write Offs, a series from Channel 4 with Sandi Toksvig and eight people who have struggled with reading and writing with the aim of shining the light on the issue of adult illiteracy across the UK.
Joining Tommy in the webinar will be Aegis rep and Roy Watkins who works with financial services provider AEGON and Kathleen Jowitt, Assistant Education Officer in UNISON's Learning and Organising Services team who specialises in communications and online learning.
Tommy, Kathleen and Roy will discuss what dyslexia and neurodiversity are, how they can impact adult learners and give examples from unions on how union learning reps have supported dyslexic learners in the workplace with practical examples and ideas.
Dyslexia is thought to affect about one in ten people. It can cause difficulties with processing information and primarily affects reading and writing skills, though it can affect other abilities too.
Everyone’s experience of dyslexia is different and this webinar will help to think of strategies that would help engage and support dyslexic learners.
Empowering Dyslexic Learners takes place on Thursday 8th October at 11 am.
Earlier in the year unionlearn produced a new publication, full of information and further resources, to help union learning reps to find practical solutions on how to support dyslexic learners in the workplace.
