voc rehab is a scam?

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hi my name is scott I would like to talk talk about voc rehab I have hard good and bad stories about them long story short my high school wanted me to go to this school called trc a place that trans special needs people for careers/jobs so I had to appy to voc rehab the counselor wasn't very smart did not know the retirement age I talked about how autism people like work on computers she never had of that and tried to get me to work at low playing jod 25 hours the max she said to my mom that trc does not pay for you to go college and I beive I was lied to I want to go to the future program at the unsiverty of Tennessee I did apply t at my last iep meeting a person from voc rehab said that the future program had over 150 people pure class that I should not do the program I think I was lied to anyway I want to hear from others about voc rehab both good and stories!

It's not a scam, because they don't ask anything from you. I do get what you're saying though. I think it's because most of them run a shoe-string budget and have asinine policies forced on them. It forces them to run at a fraction of what they're truly capable of and only the incompetent employees stay due to the uncompetitive pay. Unfortunately there's a lot of politicians who would like such programs to die and do everything they can do strangle it and have been for years.

First time I went in, they discouraged me from going to community college and gave me a spill about how they wanted to find me a career. They had me do a lot of quizzes to find "the perfect job" and tried to talk me into becoming an electrician, despite me having no interest in it or previous skills. They ended up sending me to a non-profit to do temp work for an evaluation and that place ended up hiring me after one month. Turns out the place was a high turn-over toxic dump constantly under threat of OSHA fines and civil rights lawsuits (and for good reason from what I saw). My therapist later told me that voc rehab was being sued for pawning off clients on such places and encouraged me to join in on it.

I'm trying it again, but this time a different office. I don't have high hopes for it. They already tried discouraging me from pursuing a degree and my chosen career (computer programming and I already have a lot of credits for it). They also acted like they didn't know about the bad work conditions of that one job and the lawsuits.

All I want is help finding a graveyard shift job and help acquiring it, but it's looking more and more that the employment office will be of more help.

I know what you mean. I wish this was the 1980s. There were many graveyard shift data entry jobs in those days.

I'm not completely clear on how it works for them, but I don't think it reflects well for them if they place you in school instead of a job. They're trying to get you employed as soon as possible, and they don't always care if the job is a perfect fit for you. If you don't have a good feeling about the vocational rehab person and you can't switch people, I just wouldn't go back.

I would check out the school program you're talking about and look at some others that are convenient for you. If they seem confusing, get your mom or a friend to go with you. Things you'll want to ask about is:

-How long is the program?
-Will you get a degree at the end?
-If you decide to go to school longer, or transfer, will other schools accept the credits?
-Will the school help you get a job when you finish?
-Is there a way that you can alter your program to take more or fewer classes if you are bored or overwhelmed?
-Can they help you get a job to work while you go to school?

Also: make sure the school is ACCREDITED.

My voc counselor mostly kept telling me to assert myself. I wanted her to contact potential employers to help me line up a job interview or a job & she didn't do that kind of stuff. All she really did for me was refer me to a school for people with low vision to learn life-skills; I was born with a rare low vision disorder.