Can people with learning disabilities get a good paying job?

[SouthMan28]

As I have a mild learning disability and people say I'm only good enough to work in McDonald's! For which upsets me!

Is there any chance people like me can get a good job and career in life as I'm only 29!

As I feel like l'm stuck in low skilled jobs all my life!

Have you known people with mild learning disabilities to have good jobs and careers?

if you can drive that was an achievement to pass the test.
how about long distance lorry driving?

I work with masters students and a few of them have learning difficulties. The most common is dyslexia. They're all in better paid and more highly skilled jobs than me.

I have a friend who has a learning disability and he's just retired as a GP. Also have a friend who works in programming and has also been a taxi driver.

Maccy D's actually has a great management programme, don't knock them. Are there any local charities for adults with LD you can contact? www.scope.org.uk/employment-services/support-to-work/?gclid=CjwKCAjwkMeUBhBuEiwA4hpqEOfl8Zk-0OVrxnLKg4Hvl9J5JUxySjqVwMQoQjHGYKm3yvCXn88aBBoCLJcQAvD_BwE

Most professional jobs are going to need a degree, but there are decently paying jobs out there that don't require a higher level of studying.

Are you good with technical things? Plumbing and heating engineers are paid well and definitely in need. Would you be able to manage with technical knowledge and applying it in everyday situations?

HGV drivers are very well paid and also in need right now.

My ds, who has aspergers, isn't that academic, but is doing a btec in applied science and now has an apprenticeship place in an industrial laboratory. I'm autistic and adhd and trained to be a nurse.

Btecs are a good way of starting off. I know you're 29, but you're never too old to learn new skills. You might not be earning mega bucks, but you could still have an interesting and worthwhile job. Could you manage to get GCSE English and Maths if you didn't get these at school?

Dyslexia is not a learning disability, it is a learning difficulty. The 2 are different. Mencap link. A learning disability is a diagnosis in its own right and it is categorised as mild with an IQ of 50-69.

A learning disability is different to a learning difficulty. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty. Op may indeed have a learning difficulty, but we haven't been told this.

The obvious answer given your skills, likes and dislikes, would be a more specialist type of driving. Probably not delivery or buses which require too much contact with the general public, but there's a lot of demand for lorry drivers at the moment. Not a huge amount of money, but a lot more than McDonalds.

(Or rather, better than entry level McDonalds. As a pp rightly pointed out McDonalds' management track is a perfectly good career).

What do you mean by a professional job?

Professions such as teaching, medicine, accountancy and law all require a lot of study and professional exams so probably aren't an option. They also require working with people.

But your driving skills do provide options.

In the age of online shopping there are lots of delivery driver jobs.

My cousin is an ambulance driver and loves her job. I'm pretty sure she gets a salary rather than wages.

Another option - I work in customer service for a pension and insurance company and we have two colleagues that I know of with learning difficulties.

There are certain routine tasks that they can do and as far as I know they have the same pay and benefits as the rest of us. The salary isn't great but the pension is good.

It would be better to go to HR directly rather than via an agency.

agree with PP, driving is a good start. How do you feel about training as a train or bus driver (or tube if you live in London)? It’s well paid and you don’t have to interact with people!

Or, you talk about arranging deliveries. What about logistics? I’m not sure of the route into such a job, but I know lots of retail/product companies will have logistics roles in their head office, as the stock will need sending out for delivery. When I was 22 I’d only ever worked in retail at that point and got my first office job in the head office of a tile company, as an administrator on the stock allocation team. I got it through a recruitment agent. Is this something you could look into, and follow a career path there into stock distribution and logistics if that interests you?

as for whether people with a disability can get well paid jobs, as others have said it does depend on your personal skill set and abilities but yes - I can think of two very skilled and accomplished journalists, Esther Webber and Lucy Webster, who have cerebral palsy. Obviously they followed a different career path to the sort of thing you’re looking for but it is absolutely possible and you sound dedicated, intelligent and open to trying things so I’m sure you can find something that suits you.

Theres specialist courses for different tupes of lifting/loading trucks/whatever they are called arent there. Ive often seen adverts for those. They pay quite well.

I won’t derail OP’s thread but many organisations consider dyslexia a learning disability due to it being a life long condition

A disability but not a "learning disability" which is very specific

OP, would you be able to pick up coding skills? There are many initiatives to provide free training into jobs and the earning potential is very good. You don’t have to work much with people in many of the possible careers.

Also I’m sorry people have said that to you. Don’t listen to them. Create your own path/journey.

I think bus driving requires too much in the way of people-handling skills to be realistic for the OP, even nowadays. Train driving would require maths and English GCSE passes.

But there are many other driving-related opportunities at the moment.

You are confusing the definition of a “disability” as per the Equality Act and a “learning disability” as in the specific diagnosis of a learning disability.

Dyslexia can be a disability as per the definition of a disability in the Equality Act, but it is not a learning disability in the sense of the specific diagnosis.

A learning disability is a specific diagnosis and dyslexia is not part of that. Although someone may have both.

Dyslexia meets the criteria for support as a disability but my understanding is that it isn't a learning disability because that term has other specific meanings.

I have dyslexia and received academic support as a disabled student but not as a learning disabled student, which would have been quite different.

I think it is an important distinction when discussing professional jobs because with the right support people with dyslexia ( or similar specific learning difficulties) should be able to acquire excellent academic and professional qualifications as academic ability isn't impacted.

OP what is a good yearly salary in your eyes?

I wonder if lorry driving might work for you.

I'm not sure what level of need you have but it's worth getting in touch with charities like your local MENCAP & Ambitious about Autism (if applicable). They often have internship arrangements with employers which lead onto full time jobs. Internships are a good way to find out what you like and what you're good at.
www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/what-we-do/employment

This is not a bad idea. Companies like MacDonalds and Lidl seems to have good career paths, starting at the bottom and moving up.

Mcd's are actually a really good organisation and the management level pay isn't shit.

Wanting a professional role isn't unreasonable but you need to find what works for you.

It looks like in the UK, dyslexia is a learning difficulty and not a learning disability. Due to the reasonable adjustments required for learning, it didn’t even cross my mind that it wasn’t a learning disability.

In the US, it seems to be classed as a learning disability, widely.

I find that interesting.

Op have you had a look at NHS Trust websites? Many Trusts are really learning disability job friendly. Are you able to research this yourself or do you need help?

Likewise, charities related to disabilities often employ people with lived experience. My friend has a moderate learning disability and heads up a team at one such charity.

This is where differing terms in differing countries causes confusion.

Even in America dyslexia is not a learning disability in the sense of the specific diagnosis. Differences occur due to differing terminology used, in the US a learning disability (as in the sense of the specific diagnosis) is often known as an intellectual disability. Leaning disability/intellectual disability has set diagnostic criteria as set out in the ICD/DSM which dyslexia alone doesn’t meet.