Eye T Champions!

As an independent IT recruiter, Clarkewood Consulting are passionate about three things

Personal development

Pioneering technologies

Professional, local, relationships

Over the past 6 months we have been working with the above organisations to begin what we hope will be the start of an annually running project.

The aim of our project is to help local visually impaired people to reconnect with technology and help improve their lifestyle. The idea of the project came from working with Sight Concern and realizing the overwhelming number of users at Sight Concern’s Bradbury Centre, who have an interest in using a computer but a distinct lack of trainers who are able to help them learn.

We recruited a group of 7 volunteers who span the West Midlands. Our volunteers are aged from 18 – 60 and consist of IT students, unemployed people and people looking to build on their skills.

By December all of our volunteers began learning their way around Dolphins’ pioneering GUIDE system. Our volunteers spent two days at Dolphin Computer Access’ HQ in Worcester to master their new skills and to create their own lesson plans.

This is the first year for a local project of its kind and we are all very excited about what is still yet to come.

"66 per cent of registered blind and partially sighted people of working age are not in employment" (Douglas et al, 2006)

Our ‘Eye T Champions’ are ready to start improving quality of life for local visually impaired people; from increasing employability to being able to Skype or e mail loved ones and doing an online shop.

You can follow our volunteers on twitter @eyeTchampions and also check back on our blog to follow updates on how the project progresses, hearing from both trainer and user.

Meet the Team: Matt Hunt

After our first ‘Meet the Team’ blog, we are going to follow it up with another insight into our team. The second of our ‘Meet the Team’ blogs will be focussed on Matt Hunt.

 

Matthew Hunt

Matthew.Hunt@clarkewoodconsulting.com

Describe yourself in a few words: Motivated, Passionate and building a career.

Matt, 22, has been at ClarkeWood for over 2 years and states his best professional achievement as helping to build ClarkeWood from the start. He works mainly in the Birmingham area sourcing anything IT Support related: Testers, Trainers, Field Support,  Managers Etc.

He is a big sports fan and enjoys Golf, Football and going to the gym. Matt’s particular passion is Football. He plays for Archdales FC and is a keen supporter of Aston Villa. When asked about his favourite football match he said that he really enjoyed watching Aston Villa beat Birmingham 5 – 1 back in 2008.

What is your Favorite football goal? It would have to be Gary Cahill vs. Birmingham City – April 16^th 2006

When Matt isn’t at work or playing football he enjoys watching films and listening to music. His favorite films are Jerry Maguire and Heat. He also likes watching any films with Natalie Portman or Mila Kunis in! He enjoys listening to Hip Hop and RnB, which has earned him the office nickname of 50 Pence!

Matt says his biggest personal achievement is when he did a Skydive for St Richards Hospice and raised £415 for the local cause.  When asked who he would most like to be stuck on an island with, Matt said his Girlfriend.

How would your colleagues describe you? Matt is a conscientious and hardworking team player, always looking to help and support his colleagues throughout the day. He has a dry sense of humour and can often be heard humming along to some 50 pence ditty.