Career Options

Alice: Some Sort of Job


Alice was born in 1957 in Buckinghamshire. She went to mainstream primary schools and moved to a residential special school with her sister for her secondary education.

Here Alice talks about the careers support she received at school.

  • Alice
  • Alice
  • Alice
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/some-sort-of-job.mp3

Transcript

Oh, rubbish. I know that I wanted to join the diplomatic corps, partly because I loved languages and stuff like that and I was just basically told that that wasn't really going to happen, it wasn't a feasible option. So I think there was this, this notion that the lucky ones might work, and I think that's partly what was behind this kind of drive for 'You've got to be ten per cent better than everybody else if you're going to succeed’. A vague hope perhaps that at least some of us might get some sort of job. And so there was this kind of tension between not entirely believing that we would all be able to work, and at the same time trying to pull us towards work and towards having a career of some description, but I don't think any of us were expected to do anything big in the world of work, it would have been that we were expected to become a civil service clerk or something and then we would be content with our lot for the rest of time.

Explore more

Explore stories by theme or view the timeline of significant events in education for disabled people

A selection of other stories...