Another cohort of our inclusive Immersive in Digital Marketing has come to an end. This time, we had five learners of diverse backgrounds and abilities. Five weeks. 100 hours of contact time.

One thing that really struck me was: how do we actually pack so much content into five weeks? One of the biggest challenges is making sure learners have the stamina to last through the day, understand the content, and practise the skills required by the end of the course. Looking back on this batch, a few reflections keep coming back to me.

Five learners, five very different needs

Although the class was just five of them, they all had very different abilities:

The one who responds but doesn't process. Some learners are able to understand, but they do not seem to process the content. They just respond. We kept prompting them towards deeper thoughts and analysis, but that takes time as well, and time is exactly what we don't have much of.

The one who tries hard but struggles. One learner is very nice, obedient, and always tries to understand. But in terms of aptitude, he struggled with the level of delivery, so we needed to break down the activities for him.

The youngest one. Another learner was just at the age where people finish secondary school, yet he already had some working experience. He struggled to pay attention throughout the day, and would probably fall asleep in the second half if the task became too demanding.

The one who is always a step ahead. On the surface, this learner did not seem to be paying attention, because he was doing his own self-learning of coding and website design. But he was very cooperative, and his work often wowed me. Where others were still imitating us on how to prompt AI, he had already typed out a series of better prompts.

The one playing games. The last learner was probably playing games on his laptop half the time, half listening to others. But when it came to doing the work, he could also follow.

Putting learners with such different abilities and challenges into one classroom is always a very big challenge. The load on the trainer is much bigger. It takes a lot of professional knowledge to make use of the limited time, teach what we need to teach, and make sure they actually learn.

Graduates from the most recent cohort of our Immersive in Digital Marketing

More than one plus one

I think the most precious part of this course is the safe environment we create for learners to come together. To understand each other's challenges and limitations, and to work with and leverage each other's strengths. When that happens, the output is more than just one plus one.

But besides teaching content, this is also where I struggle the most: guiding them to deal with their own sense of perfection, communicate clearly, update each other on their progress, and see that a presentation is not an individual platform but a team effort.

How do I position each individual idea so that the whole proposal sounds convincing? And all this needs to be realistic and pragmatic, because we are answering a problem statement posed by a real company.

Teaching what the market actually needs

I always reflect on whether what we teach is actually what the market needs.

To be a competent digital marketer, one must understand how the market works, how a business owner thinks, and how a consumer behaves. This will most probably sound very challenging for persons with disabilities. Some of them do not even have the experience of managing their own finances yet. But I believe this course does give them a glimpse.

The harder part is linking all these skills and giving them scenarios where they know how to apply them in their future workplace. Take content marketing. We help them understand the differing needs of different audiences, then ask them to use the same thinking to curate their CV for employers from different industries.

Whatever they learn, the soft skills and the way of thinking should also apply when they hold jobs other than digital marketing.

Balancing expectations, and choosing our battles

There is also the challenge of balancing their expectations of finding a job after the course.

It is never easy to tell learners what they need to strengthen and improve on. And when I see that some challenges cannot be overcome within this course, I feel a sense of setback too. I thought that when they come to this course, we should be able to bring them to the next level.

But the more batches I take, the more I realise we need to choose what battles we want to fight. We decide what to teach each individual, so that when they embark on their journey after this course, they are more prepared to face the challenges ahead. Not every gap can be closed in five weeks, but the right one, closed well, makes a difference.

For the learner who struggles with aptitude, that battle might be building confidence through smaller, broken-down tasks. For the youngest, it might be the stamina and focus to last a full working day. For the one always a step ahead, it might be stretching him further so he doesn't coast.

Are we teaching them how to work, or how to live?

I wish we had more time with them. Do we need to rush them? Or is there a better way to guide them, so they can experience all this as they grow? Instead of going through so many short courses, should they go through one that is three or six months long, so they don't just repeat like a robot, but also learn how to think?

Sometimes I think Singapore's environment is really too rushed. We expect not only PWDs, but maybe even neurotypical people, to gain a great set of skills in a short time. But are we teaching them how to work, or how to live?

In the immersive course, as much as possible, I hope they learn not only how to work, but also to see work as part of their life, instead of just a job they earn money from.

Five learners, five weeks, 100 hours.

On paper, it sounds manageable. In the classroom, it is a constant balancing act between content and stamina, the group and the individual, and what we hope for them and what is realistic.

What I take away from this batch is that teaching is not only about delivering the syllabus. It is about creating a safe space where learners understand each other, linking what we teach to what the market needs, and being honest about where they stand. And sometimes, it is about accepting that we cannot fight every battle, and choosing the ones that will matter most.

To my five learners: thank you for teaching me as much as I tried to teach you. I hope you carry the skills, and more importantly the way of thinking, into whatever comes next, at work and in life.