Brother with Autism

[ColdFeetWarmHeart]

Hi, not sure if this is the best place for this thread....

My brother is in his early 20's and is looking for his first job. He has autism. Hard to describe where he is in the spectrum. He has no behavioural issues, but just have some learning issues (takes a little longer to grasp some things etc), and the normal social issues that go with Autism.

He is mainly looking for shop work; he did 2 lots of work experience in a shop and thoroughly enjoyed it. He is quite happy arranging the shelves in date order etc, and helping the odd customer find an item.

He has applied for so many jobs in the last 2.5 years, and not had an interview for any of these! Does anyone have any tips on applying for these jobs? Should he declare autism/disability on form? raise it an interview? never mention it unless directly asked? he has been given conflicting information from job centre and similar. Personally, I don't think it would do him any favours to not tell them on job app form. But would declaring it put some people off?

Is there a charity or organisation that help autistic people find work? he is on a work programme that he has been sent to by the job centre, but they aren't really helping him. keep putting him on stupid courses (last one was how to set up your own company!!) - it feels like they are just ticking boxes rather that doing stuff that will actually help him!!

I don't think declaring autism would put employees off but I think it'll be better to mention it incase he needs additional training or needs things explaining better. I work with some autistic people and I'm not sure if they declared it or not but it certainly didn't give them a disadvantage of getting the job

Just wondering why he hasn't got anywhere in 2.5 years. I think he hasn't mentioned it on some forms as job centre/work programme have told him not to!!!

So the issue is he's not even getting interviews- then the problem is with his cv/application form.

Get those sorted and targeted at shop work, relevant experience, qualities etc.

Is he classed as having a disability? If I recall correctly many application forms have a section for this, you don't declare specifics, just yes/no, but usually it guarantees an interview if you.

he could raise it in interview as a "negative positive", as in I gave autism but this means I am good at order and numbers, and am good at solving customer problems...

I will look at his CV for him and tailor it to relevant work. I have a feeling the work programme probably haven't helped him with this or suggested it - he has never mentioned it to me but it is something that I do when looking for work.
I presume that he is classed as disabled. he said statements throughout school life to get extra help from TA's etc, and he gets DLA. As far as I am aware Autism is classed as a disability....

I'll email him now and ask him to send me a copy of the CV he uses.

Yes autism is covered as a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

I was looking at his cv yesterday. Obviously he's looking for his first job, so he just has work experience and volunteering listed.
What stuck out to me is under qualifications he had lots of skills for life courses listed, but no mention of the autism.
In my opinion his cv should either mention he has autism, which would explain the types of courses that he has done, or the qualifications section is re-worded somehow. Perhaps leave skills for life off, and just list the it course he did.

Any ideas? What do employers think when they see a skills for life course?