What job for a disabled young adult?

schoolrunmum

Our local Asda employs a disabled youngster as a sort of "meet and greeter"...he is wheelchair bound but mooches around the entrance saying hello, and does lots of the tannoy announcements re special offers etc..HTH..

donquine

There is a charity in my town that specifically employs disabled people in the catering industry, with a view to letting them build up valuable work experience so they can get something relevant and recent on their CV and in some cases, move onto bigger and better things.

Have you tried researching whether any similar charities operate in your area? I was totally unaware of this charity operating up here until I came across it by chance. There may be something local to your friend if you look for it.

I think you would be looking for specific local charities, rather than ones spanning a whole region or country.

Jowo_2

purplebanna wrote: »

As..
However his mobility is limited because he has a broken hip and thus can't do anything active (registered disabled).

By registered disabled, do you mean he receives Disability Living Allowance for mobility/care reasons and/or he receives ESA (too sick to work)? DLA is not means tested - plenty of people in employment receive it, it helps them with the costs associated with their needs.

When does he expect to recover from his broken hip and does he have any other conditions that will impact his ability to undertake employment?

Jowo_2

purplebanna wrote: »

... hes been in college for the past 2 years retaking his GCSE's and is now on a graphics design course.

time for him to pop along to the careers service. if he's got an interest in graphics/design, perhaps they can provide guidance on local companies that recruit students in this role, such as the reprographics division of large companies, print and marketing companies, so he can proactively call all of them up to enquire about opportunities and persuade them to accept his CV for future positions.

but I can't see why any employer would want to employ someone with a broken hip until it has healed.

Shaw Trust

We are the UK’s largest third sector provider and one of the Government’s lead partners in the delivery of employment programmes for disabled and disadvantaged people

http://www.shaw-trust.org.uk/home

cookie54

schoolrun mum do you mean the crawley one ........

he he work a cba or somthing simaliar with changed to computer etc ..


could he try a few large employers who may already have the adaption in place

SueC_2

It may be worth contacting these:

http://www.remploy.co.uk/employmentservices.ashx

GothicStirling

Wow, talk about low ambitions!

I don't see why he should restrict himself to considering menial jobs. As someone who has worked in catering a long time, I don't think anyone would hire him in such a role because he needs to be fast and it's hard and physically exhausting work.

My advice would be to encourage him to seek further education, maybe even university study. There is no reason why he should be condemned to a life of benefits and poor wages. It sounds like he has very low self-esteem.

MrsManda

What benefits is he claiming?
It sounds like it's worth him speaking to the Disability Employment Advisor at his local jobcentre. As their title suggests, they specialise in helping people disadvantaged in the workplace because of their disabilities and so are much better placed to offer support than the usual JCP advisors.

They can suggest types of work which could be suitable, help with work placements, training and education, CV writing etc to improve your chances of getting a job, have a knowledge of local employers and can provide ongoing support once in a role.

tom9980

purplebanna wrote: »

Asking on behalf of my friend.

He is 23 and has no qualifications or experience, and he's been on benefits all his life.

He had to drop out of school for medical reasons so he never managed to complete his GCSE's, then from 17-21 he's been in and out of hospital.

Now he does have a good standard of health and hes been in college for the past 2 years retaking his GCSE's and is now on a graphics design course.

However his mobility is limited because he has a broken hip and thus can't do anything active (registered disabled).

Now hes depeserate to come off benefits, but what employer will realistically take him on?

Almost describes my life this :eek:

My advice to anyone replying to this thread is stop and imagine yourself at 16 and becoming seriously ill, now imagine all those things that happen to you at 15-21 years old and you will soon realise what a life destroying thing that really is to happen to someone.

At 23 i went to college for 2 years, followed that up with learning to drive, more evening courses for 2-3 more years, then 2 years of voluntary work and now finally starting university. Its a long hard road because i am still ill and frankly unemployable because of that but i will find a way to achieve the goals i have set out for myself. Its a sad fact that the system doesnt help you and leaves you with little choice but to "work" the system there is very little help out there unless you shout from the top of your lungs.

Whatever you do for your friend try and keep goals in mind start small and work through each problem as they come up always keep in a positive mindset, ignore the negative people. Strive to improve your life in anyway you can, at some point come up with a life plan and you will find that with a bit of luck good things happen.

MrsManda wrote: »

What benefits is he claiming?
It sounds like it's worth him speaking to the Disability Employment Advisor at his local jobcentre. As their title suggests, they specialise in helping people disadvantaged in the workplace because of their disabilities and so are much better placed to offer support than the usual JCP advisors.

They can suggest types of work which could be suitable, help with work placements, training and education, CV writing etc to improve your chances of getting a job, have a knowledge of local employers and can provide ongoing support once in a role.

The DEA at my local jobcentre helped me get work experience at a local charity in my area doing work related to my chosen field, he was helpful and it helped my university application.

purplebanna

Thanks for all the replies. FYI he is registered disabled and receives high rate disability allowance as well as a few other benefits.

He is now as fit as hes ever going to be and could probably do most jobs that dont involve heavy lifting / a lot of walking, its just the lack of qualifications putting him off.

He's a reallty talented drawer and Adobe Photoshop expert, I'm helping him put together a portfolio of various types of work and he's going to try and apply for various low level graphic design jobs. If employers can see past his lack of GCSE's then they should be really happy with his performance.