I was unemployed for 17 years altogether. Then a Mencap Pathway scheme set me up doing work experience in a college post room
It's not easy doing a CV if you have not had a chance to do much with your life and you have nothing to put on it! I would apply for jobs advertised in shop windows and I would get interviews, but I was never successful. They never told me what I was doing wrong. The Job Club people just said 'sell yourself', but that's hard, and the more rejections you get, the harder it gets.
I would always apply for shop work but when I did some tests many years later to see what sort of job I was suited for it came out as 'office work'! That was after I'd moved to a new area and they seemed to be more geared up to helping you look for work. I was unemployed for 17 years altogether.
Then a Mencap Pathway scheme set me up doing work experience in a college post room. They said I was good and they created a new role just for me. When they told me I was getting a part-time paid job I was in tears I was so happy. I was 34 and it felt like my life was beginning at last!
I've been working there for 13 years and it has changed my life. Earning a wage gives you self-respect. You can pay your own way and hold your head up high. I have made a lot of friends through work and I think I am a more confident person. Working part-time suits me as it means I can do other things, like be the editor of OurSay magazine.
So I would say to young people with learning disabilities and those who support them, ask early on about work experience and make sure people are given the support they need to get a job, because they will end up with a better life. And they shouldn't give up trying, even if, like me, they get nowhere at the beginning.
The government says it wants to see 48 per cent of people with moderate and severe learning disabilities in work. That is going to be a tough target to achieve. But I think it is the right way to go to try and ensure that people with learning disabilities have the same life chances that other people take for granted.
This is an extract by from an Opinion piece by Joe Mellone in IQJ, Issue 9 in April 2010. The full article is here.
