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Our resident career doctor is here to study your problems and research the best
advice for you by consulting a vast army of experts.
Here the career doctor considers the best way back into work for a design engineer
with impaired vision who has been out of work for eight years.
Dear career doctor,
Up until eight years ago I was a microwave design engineer,
working for a small high-technology firm which I had been with since I left
university nine years earlier.
Unfortunately my vision is now impaired and I
can only see well enough to read very large print. I am unemployed and need your
advice on how to get back into the job market. I have an HND in science and nine
years' experience in the microwave communications industry.
Yours sincerely
P.
Dear P,
There are two issues here:
- The practical help and advice available to workers with disabilities.
- How to get back into the job market after an eight-year break.
I have received letters from other users with disabilities, so I'd like
to use your enquiry as a starting point to help others too. It's also worth
noting that the definition of disability is very wide-ranging and can extend
to speech impaired by a strong stammer and communication hindered by dyslexia.
Government figures estimate there are up to nine million disabled people in
the UK.
I discussed the first point with Anne Rehahn, an information officer at
the Royal National Institute for the Blind
(RNIB), who suggested your first point of call should be
Jobcentre Plus,
which can put anyone with a disability in contact with a disability employment adviser.
In addition, Jobcentre Plus runs a scheme called 'Access to work', which
helps applicants get into jobs. In some cases this can mean obtaining the
assistance of a personal support worker who can assess and advise on an
applicant's needs.
You should also be aware of the Disability Discrimination Act which
enforces key points including:
- No employer can discriminate on the grounds of disability.
- Employers with 15 or more employees have to make reasonable adjustments
to the job and workplace to suit workers with disabilities (such as installing
a wheelchair ramp in the premises, for example).
- Anyone who feels they have been overlooked for a job, or who lost their
job because they are disabled, should contact the Government watchdog
Disability Rights Commission
(0845 762 2633 or email: enquiry@drc-gb.org).
If you feel you have a legal grievance, call the Disability Law Service
(telephone 020 7791 9800).
The second point raised by your query is
about how to get back into employment after a long break. Again, my reply
applies to many others who have written to the career doctor on this topic.
I'd say that there are five basic first stages:
- Research the necessary skills for the jobs you want.
Do this by consulting job adverts, your job centre and people who are already in that
type of job. You could even ask the companies themselves to advise you or send job
profiles/job descriptions. Other sources of advice include open days, web sites
and recruitment consultants.
- Find out how and where to obtain the necessary work skills.
Your job centre or learndirect (telephone 0800 100 900)
will guide you. In addition, many charities have their own training colleges.
For example, the RNIB runs two skills development centres.
- Get back into the work habit.
Get accustomed to dealing with people again and to working at someone else's pace.
Voluntary work can be a good training ground - from helping in a school to a
charity shop or church - all are ways of getting you back into the habit of
having to be at a certain place at a certain time. Many experts who have worked
with the long-term unemployed say that the most essential skill for getting back
into work, and keeping a job, is the discipline of setting an alarm clock - not
because the unemployed are shirkers but because they are used to living at their
own pace.
- Contact the Employers' Forum on Disability (telephone 020 7403 3020).
This is a group of 350 major employers who have a commitment to employing and
supporting workers with disabilities. You could also get in touch with the
Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation
(RADAR). This is a national organisation which doesn't concentrate on any one disability
but which is concerned with campaigning and giving information and employment advice
across the board.
- Believe in yourself.
Think of the expertise and experience you can bring to a job and write them down
before you complete an application form. And remember - every time you fill in an
application form or attend an interview you are taking a positive step forward.
Take a look at the text only version of
totaljobs.com.
What are your rights?
Get jobs by email.
Register your CV.
Good luck!
Career doctor. | 