Supported employment and volunteering

If you have a learning disability, learning difficulty or autism, we can help you learn new skills and flourish in the workplace. We can help you to find and keep a job, or volunteer in a role that you enjoy.

Who we can support

We can support people who are over the age of 18 and either:

• have a learning disability or difficulty
• had an education, health and care plan during school
• are otherwise neurodivergent (including autism)

Support we offer

The support we provide includes:

• help to find out what kind of job would be good for you
• training so you can build basic skills that employers value
• travel training
• job searching tips
• support to write your CV and prepare for interviews
• job coaching and support at work so you can learn your role
• chances to meet local employers that offer work experience, taster shifts or working interviews

How to apply

To apply for supported employment or volunteering support, fill in our online form or call us on 01226 774528.

When you get in touch with us we'll tell you more about the help we can offer. We'll talk to you about the type of work or volunteering you'd like to do, what like and don't like, and what you might be good at. We'll help you see the skills you already have and talk to you about any skills you'd like to improve.

If you're a professional looking to make a referral to the service, please fill out our referral form.

Finding you a role

We speak to local businesses about roles for people that might need some extra support. It’s good for us to show them your CV to see if the role would be a good fit for you. If there’s a job we think you'll like, we might ask if we can introduce you. 

Sometimes we can set up a working interview. This means you can try out the job as a trial. Another way we can help is by creating a work placement so you can get some experience. We can work together to help you search for jobs too.

Settling into your role

When you've found a role, we want to help you learn your job and feel confident doing it. Work placements are helpful because we can show you what to do. Sometimes our job coaches can come to work with you until you're confident to do your job on your own. We can also help you to learn how to travel to work if you need it.

Hear from people we've helped

Jess's story 

"For people with learning difficulties, meeting employers can be hard. A working interview let me show that I can do my job." - Jess at Market Kitchen.

Dylan's story 

"The best bit about doing my job is it has built up my confidence and it’s helped me communicate better with other people." - Dylan at Cannon Hall. Learn more about Dylan's story on YouTube.

More information