what to expect from disability job services

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C2V
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28 Feb 2017, 1:38 am

What exactly are you supposed to expect from disability job services?
This one isn't autism specific, but I am there because of autism. I initially had many questions - do they have employers advertise through them? Do they provide up-skilling, vocational training, support to afford outside training courses? Do they provide access to traineeships? Do they do any kind of job market research, to indicate areas of skill shortage that need people in the job, or provide bridging to train people for these areas? Do they have contacts with a work placement program, so allow people to get employment related work references for employers to check? Do they have any vocational rehabilitation for people who have been unemployed a while, to help get back into the workforce? Do they provide support for people with disabilities, and ensure employers understand that disability and work with the person to meet standards? Do they help the client work on a job pathway plan, to get you back into work with the steps that need to be taken, and help you to do so? If you require retraining through a formal course, do they help you research and support you to get retrained? Do they help you navigate Government red tape related to unemployment and training?
The answers to all of these from the job services office was "no."
All they do is meet with me every fortnight, tell me to hand in a sheet with proof of jobs I have (pointlessly) applied for, and tell me to look on Seek. I do not need help to look on Seek, and doing so does not help me find work after four years. Especially as I had a chronic illness (now cured via multiple surgeries, but it doesn't seem to matter if you recovered - once you've had an illness, you're blackballed) and cannot return to the field of work I was in, as my autism makes this too difficult for me.
They offer no help whatsoever. I'm curious if this is normal or if these people aren't doing their jobs, thinking they can get away with it because the clientele are, by necessity, disabled people. I know this is going to vary a bit by country, but what exactly is the point of these people? If all they do is tell me to look online for jobs I'm not qualified for and make me hand in sheets - I can do that itself online. There is no point in them.
Aren't they actually supposed to help people find work? Or help them retrain to do so? Maybe I'm naive but I thought that was their purpose. What exactly are job services, especially disability job services, supposed to provide?


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izzeme
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28 Feb 2017, 6:28 am

Job services are indeed quite useless in my experience.
They know that potential employers will not hire anyone that has, in a nice phrase, "Distance to the job market", be that trough autism, a physical or mental disorder or even simply age; because of this, the agency will only to the bare minimum of effort, just enough to allow you to keep your benefits (at least, they did for me, if i didn't apply for jobs, i'd lose my income).



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28 Feb 2017, 6:49 am

You might look at it from point of the employee who only has a limited amount of time to help you. They only have so many hours in a day and so many clients. With a proper education you can come up with a good estimate of how much time they have to help you.

So, you may want to get right down to the point and say what kind of jobs you want, and ask them if there is anything they can do to help you. You may want to prepare a written lists of stuff that may help you get a job. And maybe another list of stuff where you would like to get coaching on.

I know this is hard because this is what social training is all about. How to find out what someone can do to actually help you and getting that help.



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01 Mar 2017, 9:06 pm

^ Actually, I have done that. I wrote out a detailed list of my goals, my own research about how to get there (which I just needed some support in finding out information - something else they didn't do) and what my barriers were.
They ignored it completely.
It's not that I expect more time to be devoted to me, more that I actually expected them to be useful in any way. If they'd said to me ok, we have access to subsidized training in these areas, and have employers willing to take on those who complete said training, or there is a voluntary work program which can get you references but you will have to contact and work out the details yourself, or if just applying for jobs isn't helping you you may try alternatives XYZ, or really any of the entirely sensible inquiries I had initially about actually getting back into the workforce, I would happily handle it myself.
But when I try to propose something that will actually get me retrained and back into a job, all I get from these people is "no. Just look on Seek."
They're completely useless and I was wondering if this was average, or I'm being scammed because it's disability employment and they think they can get away with a low standard of assistance.


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BTDT
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01 Mar 2017, 10:04 pm

Can you do an online search of what services they are suppose to offer?

Autism is a tough disability to help as everyone is so different. Normal people prefer to stereotype disabilities because most of them can't handle so many variables. But, the moment you point out one thing that a lot of autistics have here, a bunch of of people will chime in that they don't have that. Or vice versa.



d_a_l_j
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12 Mar 2017, 7:01 am

I've had this experience lately. In the UK we have an organisation called Remploy, which claims to support the disabled into work (their motto is "putting ability first") but to me it was of very little benefit. The initial assessment was a nightmare. The support worker I had, spent much of the time making patronising comments, discussing off-topic subjects such as the origin of my name and joking about my age, and bringing his coworkers into the jokes. (Once he spent a disproportionate amount of time quoting comedian Lenny Henry. I was like, what's that got to do with anything?!)

The most help they gave me was rewriting my cv and covering letter. After which, they would help me look for jobs on websites (which I don't need help with) and that was about it. I decided after 5 months that I was "flogging a dead horse" so to speak, and quit Remploy, deciding instead to go on Jobseekers Allowance. That hasn't been much help either, but at least I'm getting paid.

I'm tired of so-called employment services treating me like I'm invisible.