Living Costs When Returning to Education?

Puzzled why references should be such a barrier, or do you mean you don't hold letters from past employers to show to others?

Yes references are asked for, but how do people get started? At some point the references need to be unrelated to employment - eg former teachers. Your teachers may not have known your diagnosis but you can atleast tell them. Even if you dropped out of university there may be enough contact to get a basic reference - you got in after all.

OK for autism the reference system can be a bind. Referees may be prevented from disclosing a contributory factor such as autism on grounds of confidentiality. So the referee is stuck on certain questions as not allowed nowadays to make a damaging comment, for fear of litigation.

Letters of reference are still used (though rarely are they held by the job applicant to show to employers), but more often the referee is sent a form with questions - timekeeping, trustworthiness, getting along with colleagues etc. Or the employer asks the referee to address those questions in a letter, and may also send a job description. The trouble with these questions is they often pick up on autism weaknesses, and it can be very difficult as a referee to answer them within the law.

I've mentioned this before on here, and raised it with NAS directly before. References really do get in the way of people on the spectrum getting jobs, because the referee cannot confidently say the applicant meets the criteria asked for. I know because as a lecturer also supporting disabled students I've had to write them, and I've gone through agonies trying to do them for graduates on the spectrum.

However references have become mere formality. Most educational and work referees include a caveat to protect against litigation that makes the references pointless - to the effect nothing said here has any reliability.

However the reason I suggested work-based learning employment is that you have more chance of being taken on if you are willing to train on the job, and that also means employers may be more flexible about previous references. Willingness to train is hard to find.

My circumstances (few grades with lots of repeats) made things difficult, and even after going to university and getting degrees, I still had to account for my pre-university jobs, which didn't last long. Eventually I sussed you just pass it off as having fun after school, cos loads do this, and employers are used to a dubious post-school record. Initially I felt I had to be honest (and I didn't have a diagnosis then to explain things), but really its no big deal. But I did have a struggle getting started after university because references mattered more then than they do now.

Autism means you are going to meet barriers getting jobs and barriers keeping them. But at least you've got the diagnosis to explain why it has been a struggle. I had no excuses and for a long time looked like a wastrel.

I think you've got to try to beat the barriers not give up because of the autism. That's not easy advice, but it does seem nevertheless the best advice.

Puzzled why references should be such a barrier, or do you mean you don't hold letters from past employers to show to others?

Yes references are asked for, but how do people get started? At some point the references need to be unrelated to employment - eg former teachers. Your teachers may not have known your diagnosis but you can atleast tell them. Even if you dropped out of university there may be enough contact to get a basic reference - you got in after all.

OK for autism the reference system can be a bind. Referees may be prevented from disclosing a contributory factor such as autism on grounds of confidentiality. So the referee is stuck on certain questions as not allowed nowadays to make a damaging comment, for fear of litigation.

Letters of reference are still used (though rarely are they held by the job applicant to show to employers), but more often the referee is sent a form with questions - timekeeping, trustworthiness, getting along with colleagues etc. Or the employer asks the referee to address those questions in a letter, and may also send a job description. The trouble with these questions is they often pick up on autism weaknesses, and it can be very difficult as a referee to answer them within the law.

I've mentioned this before on here, and raised it with NAS directly before. References really do get in the way of people on the spectrum getting jobs, because the referee cannot confidently say the applicant meets the criteria asked for. I know because as a lecturer also supporting disabled students I've had to write them, and I've gone through agonies trying to do them for graduates on the spectrum.

However references have become mere formality. Most educational and work referees include a caveat to protect against litigation that makes the references pointless - to the effect nothing said here has any reliability.

However the reason I suggested work-based learning employment is that you have more chance of being taken on if you are willing to train on the job, and that also means employers may be more flexible about previous references. Willingness to train is hard to find.

My circumstances (few grades with lots of repeats) made things difficult, and even after going to university and getting degrees, I still had to account for my pre-university jobs, which didn't last long. Eventually I sussed you just pass it off as having fun after school, cos loads do this, and employers are used to a dubious post-school record. Initially I felt I had to be honest (and I didn't have a diagnosis then to explain things), but really its no big deal. But I did have a struggle getting started after university because references mattered more then than they do now.

Autism means you are going to meet barriers getting jobs and barriers keeping them. But at least you've got the diagnosis to explain why it has been a struggle. I had no excuses and for a long time looked like a wastrel.

I think you've got to try to beat the barriers not give up because of the autism. That's not easy advice, but it does seem nevertheless the best advice.