Attending college - Improving Choices

Young people considering attending a college course when leaving school may wish to talk to their Connexions Personal Adviser or the Transitions Team about the choices available to them. A recent initiative for young people with special needs is the Improving Choices scheme.

Improving Choices uses a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure that all young people can access new programmes of study that are a high quality. The local college will work with the student and their school to identify their support needs so that they can remain in their local community whilst they continue to study in the way that suits them best.

Work Opportunities and Training

Work is a real option for young people with special needs. More and more young people see it as their right and responsibility to be economically active and part of society using and offering their skills in the local community. With the right type of support lots of people with disabilities can get involved in work of some type.

For some young people support into employment is the choice they wish to make when leaving school or following some type of work related or other training course.

Connexions Personal Advisers and the Job Centre are able to provide guidance about special schemes to support employment opportunities. This could be through the funding of special equipment via Access to Work or through support into employment.

In addition to the support from Connexions and the Job Centre, young people with special needs meeting the County Council’s eligibility criteria can use a special Supported Employment service called Work4You.

The experienced staff are available to assist individuals in identifying their skills, strengths and needs. They search for suitable opportunities including work tasters and experiences and paid employment. They are also able to provide advice about working and welfare benefits for people who are looking for part or full time employment.

Enquiries and referrals can be made to Papworth Trust's Employment freephone helpline 0800 952 5000.

If you would prefer to write their address is:
Papworth Trust
Bernard Sunley Building
Papworth Everard
Cambridge CB23 3RG 

You can email them at
info@papworth.org.uk