ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explore the struggle for choice in three main areas. Firstly, they examine the training for employment offered to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities and the extent to which it is an empowering process. Secondly, the authors look at ways in which young people are supported and sustained in finding and keeping employment. Thirdly, they also examine alternatives to employment and the degree to which they offer choices. Some young people with learning difficulties find that sustaining regular work patterns is extremely difficult and they fail to keep jobs which have been found for them. Within the discourse on vocationalism a number of tensions are apparent. These include a belief that current training policy is a further means of government intentions to control a potential labour force set against the argument that such vocational reforms are long overdue in providing a more relevant curriculum.
