Has anyone tried these council run "Pathways to work" schemes?

I can't remember Lucy.

I didn't feel badly treated, it felt more realistic to be honest, I don't think any of the places I went to were charities, they just got people refered to them by the job centre, they were't specialists for disabilities.

Everything in Wales is a bit different to how it is in England or the other Devolved Nations, our charities are different, even something like AGEUK isn't actually UK wide, you have to go to the one for your country or area.

A lot of the work here is seasonal, zero hour and low paid contracts, so when they said they couldn't find a suitable job they meant it because there really wasn't anything to apply for and it wasn't just me either, almost everyone there was in the same boat.

A lot of employers won't touch someone who's been self employed with a barge pole, we're to hard to manage apparently, disabled people are ok if you're in a wheelchair, if not they don't know what to do with you and older people are to expensive, i.e, our minimum wage is higher than that of an 18 year old.

Hello, was that the old Work Programme by any chance? I was on it and they did not seem to know what to do with me other than park me on the scheme. I also went on a disability employment scheme and that was much the same, box ticking. I too, have done so many different jobs that my CV looks like a mess. I agree with your point on Government political point scoring instead of doing more to reduce autistic unemployment.  

Hi,

Thank you so much for the link provided, I will read up on it now. 

Thank you so much for your time

Hi, I am so sorry to hear that you were treated so badly. 

I have not had personal experience of going through the job centre for employment support like you have, however my interactions which I have had with them do not exactly inspire confidence. 

There are charities out there, I wonder if I have phoned the places you experienced, and they don't seem to offer much more than CV writing, interview prep and very basic things I could simply do at home. There does not seem to be many services that actually help people into the work and lobby on their client's behalf.  

It is incredibly strange that a job coach would not have much knowledge of your disabilities, they surely should be aware that people seeking their services are often people who may have disabilities or other impairments and have exhausted all the other options.  Not even to help you with a CV is appalling on their part, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. 

I do agree that so many of these schemes seem to be about looking like they are helping people with additional needs get into work, rather than actually doing it. 

I'm sorry to hear that, no one deserves to be told off or reprimanded for not being able to use a computer, esp when you are seeking help to get into employment and better yourself. 

It does seem that way at the moment, my job coach seems to be having issues building relationships with employers. Might as well just go back to Indeed. 

I'm so sorry to hear you had a bad time with yours. Truth be told they do feel a bit poorly run which is disappointing considering my hospital job coach was amazing. 

I do agree that support for Autistic adults does drop off as you reach adulthood, that being said I have found adult social care from the council surprisingly quite good, but that might have been because I got lucky with my "coach". 

I was in a very similar position to you, i was a volunteer at a place for 9 months and was promised paid employment. However the firm ran into financial difficulties and I was let go. 

Well done though for finding employment though!

The one I tried a few years ago was very poorly run and didn't suit my needs at all. They did nothing for me.

Fundamentally, they don't want to help us, which is counterproductive because surely they'd want more people in work and contributing to society? I've found in general there's some level of support there for autistic children, but once you reach adulthood you're thrown away and left to try and find your way in a world you may not be psychologically equipped to deal with.

I ended up doing volunteer IT work for a charity and was lucky enough to end up securing permanent employment through that. A position came up at my local council and because the charity were affiliated with them, I was able to get an interview, negotiate it and get the job. I never expected it at all because the IT job market in particular is very saturated. 

Yes.

One had a go at me for not being a regular computer user, and the other I never heard back from after my first appointment.

I've had more luck looking in the local newspaper. I've seen about 3 or 4 jobs advertised in there in the last year and that is more than I've found through a scheme, or even through the jobcentre.

I've been on a couple of them, one at the job centre and one at some outsourced place, I was lucky in some sense in that I'd been kicked off incapcaity benefits even though it was obviously to the woman in the job centre that I should be on it and encouraged me to reapply as soon as I could and didn't hassle me to much. The other one was flummoxed by my not having a career path and having done so many different things in my working life and by my disablities too. None of them actually did anything to help me find suitable work, they couldn't even come up with a suitable CV, there was no training or anything else offered and anything I suggested either wasn't available or not encouraged.

Ultimately they couldn't find work or jobs that didn't exist, I was also to old for many training, apprentice and entry level stuff.

I came to the conclusion that it was more about the government being seen to be doing something and spending quite a bit of money doing it, than anything that could be of real help. I still don't know what a coach actually does, I just used to sit about with mone and have a laugh.

Hi DigbyDevon, 

Thank you for your message. I am really sorry to hear about this. It sounds very frustrating. 

I don't have any experience of this particular scheme but wanted to signpost you to our advice and guidance page on Employment which may offer some support to you. 

Please find the link here:

Employment 

I hope it helps.

With best wishes, 

Anna Mod