In Year 10 Rashaan wasn’t enjoying school. His mum wanted support to explore what other options he might have. By looking at his interests and what he was good at – with his parents’ support and an inclusive employment service – he explored different career options with work experience before starting a job that will lead to an apprenticeship.
17-year-old Rashaan loves working out at the gym and working with his hands more than reading and writing.
Rashaan was thinking about leaving school at the end of this year but wasn’t sure what he would like to do. Rashaan’s motherSerena reached out to the youth employment service at yourtown and shared that her son had a disability – so they were introduced to Candy.
Candy was the Inclusive Pathways to Employment coordinator at yourtown. The Inclusive Pathways to Employment (IPE) Pilot is an NCED initiative in partnership with four Transition to Work providers across the country. We are investigating what it takes for mainstream youth employment services to support young people with disability to pursue their interests, aspirations, and goals, and to be socially and economically included in their communities.
"I've always been worried about my son's future as he was failing in all subjects at school. I reached out to yourtown to help tread his path for the future. Candy's regular updates on set goals and the next steps for my son have been invaluable as a parent. It's been amazing to witness my son's transformation as he's become more engaged and confident” - Serena.
Candy sat down with Rashaan to explore what he wanted to achieve: find a career he’d enjoy and get his licence so that he could get around without his parents.
Career exploration can take many forms – like trying something new to see if you like it or talking to the adults in your life about the jobs they’ve had. Rashaan diligently completed the ‘homework’ tasks between meetings to explore what careers might suit him – including speaking to his father about what sort of jobs he had when he was younger.
Candy introduced Rashaan to yourtown’s social enterprises team to hear about what he could do there. They told him about traineeships in construction and landscaping that he could do a Certificate I in Construction. Rashaan said he would rather pursue his passion: fitness. Rashaan loves going to the gym and he was already completing a Certificate II in Fitness at school. He remembered the information from those classes more than anything else at school because he was interested in it.
Rashaan understands something better when you show it to him.
They open
ed up TikTok and Instagram and searched for ‘fitness careers’ to see what options look like beyond the typical ‘weights and treadmill’ gym that Rashaan was familiar with.
He was open to trying CrossFit or boxing to see what else he might enjoy. Candy reached out to a local
F45 gym where Rashaan and Candy took a class together. Rashaan had prepared his questions for the owner ahead of time with his parents and Candy.
The owner had employed someone through a school-based traineeship before and invited Rashaan to do work experience.
Sometimes making your hobby into your job doesn’t work out
Working in the gym made Rashaan feel more confident – but it turns out that working at the gym actually means talking to people. Rashaan doesn’t like small talk or confrontation, and even cleaning at the gym involved a lot of and back and forth with people who ‘just want another five minutes’ using the equipment
'Mostly it was very boring watching everyone else working out’ Rashaan says.
Rashaan still didn’t know what he wanted to do after work experience – but he knew he didn’t want to do that. Candy had a look at his school reports with him and pointed out that he got great marks in woodwork.
Meanwhile, local cabinetmaker Chris was so pleased with another IPE participant he had hired that he was asking if they had more young people he could hire. Candy asked Chris if he would consider taking someone for work experience – and he said yes.
‘I asked Rashaan, would you consider cabinet making? It’s still physical work, but this way you can keep gym as a hobby’ says Candy.
Rashaan's parents were concerned about him leaving school without a plan in place for other training or a job. Rashaan hadn’t considered cabinet making before Candy mentioned it – he only remembered teachers talking about concreting. As much as he didn’t like school, he wasn’t going to leave for something else he didn’t like doing. Work experience was a good way to test out this option before making a big decision.
Four days in – Chris offered Rashaan a job. Candy met with Rashaan and his parents to talk about a pathway to an apprenticeship. ‘I just wanted to jump in’ remembers Rashaan.
Rashaan has been in the job for over six months and is thinking about starting an apprenticeship there.
‘Boss is friendly, very kind, a very stand up guy’ says Rashaan.
The change from labourer to apprentice presents an unknown that makes him ‘a bit scared,’ but he is excited that it means he will be able to visit installation sites as well as work in the workshop.
Rashaan’s mother said he is much more independent now.
'Rashaan saves half his pay and wants to buy a car when he gets his licence. He also buys his younger siblings dinner every week as a treat.’
‘Mostly pizza,’ explains Rashaan. ‘Meatlovers with BBQ sauce is my favourite, but I get all kinds for my family’.
What we can learn from Rashaan’s story
Getting out of the office means you can really put the ‘explore’ into ‘career exploration.’
People with an intellectual disability can have trouble imagining something if they’ve never seen it before. By being creative – like using Instagram’s ‘explore’ page and getting out of the office and visiting potential workplaces in person – young people who do better with images than words can get excited about their career exploration. Work experience is an opportunity to find what you do and don’t like – a crucial step in their transition from school to work.
Families play an important role in supporting young people with disabilities transition from school to work
Parents have ideas about what a young person with a disability, especially intellectual disability, can do in the future. These ideas strongly affect how well the child does in finding a job. If people don't have high hopes and don't plan well for the transition to adulthood, they might make choices that don't help the child get a job.
Supporting families to develop high expectations about work for young people with disability, particularly intellectual and developmental disability, is most effective when the support is provided early, and the high expectations are continually reinforced (Blustein et al., 2016; 18 Francis et al., 2018).
