About Vale Life & Work Skills
Vale Life & Work Skills was created to provide personalised education that responds to the individual rather than expecting the individual to fit around the provision.
Our approach is rooted in experience across education, learning disability support and operational management, with a strong focus on quality, consistency, safeguarding and meaningful progress.
We support children, young people and adults through flexible education and skills-based programmes designed around their needs, strengths and goals. This includes personalised SEND tuition and education support, alongside adult programmes developing communication, confidence, independence and employability.
Vale was developed from a belief that education should feel purposeful, supportive and achievable. Whether learning takes place at home, in school, within the community or through our adult provision, we aim to create the right conditions for each person to engage, develop and move forward with confidence.
Vale is led by a Programme Co-ordinator with extensive experience in education, learning disability support and the management of regulated services, bringing together an understanding of individual learning needs with strong operational oversight.
Zoe Chawner
Education Director
Vale Life & Work Skills is led by our Education Director & Safe Guarding Lead, with over 20 years’ experience supporting individuals with additional needs across education, adult learning and workplace learning.
This includes various roles within The National Autistic Society for over a decade, as well as working as an Adult Tutor delivering courses within the ‘Learning for Independence’ curriculum, supporting adults with learning disabilities and delivering accredited AIM units.
Further experience includes identifying learning needs across Leicestershire and supporting individuals to access appropriate education, training and development opportunities.
Alongside this education background, our Education Director also has experience as a Director & Operations Manager within a regulated home-care service. This role has developed extensive experience in safeguarding, staff management and supervision, safer recruitment, workforce and resource planning, quality assurance, professional standards, complaints and incident management, confidentiality, policy implementation and maintaining continuity of service. It also requires effective communication with individuals, families, professionals and wider multi-agency teams.
This combination of education and operational management experience means Vale is informed not only by an understanding of individual learning needs and progression pathways, but also by the strong safeguarding, quality, communication and management systems needed to deliver a safe, responsive and well-managed education service.