Why should my business work with the Mencap Training Academy?
A company's workforce should be reflective of a diverse society. Young people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
and/or
autism
Autism is a disability. Autistic people find it difficult to understand what other people think and feel. They also find it difficult to tell people what they think and feel. Everyone with autism is different.
, who the Mencap Training Academy work with, deserve to be given a chance. With the right support, they achieve incredible things and bring a wide range of benefits to employers:
How can employers work with the Mencap Training Academy?
There are lots of ways employers can work with us to support young people with a learning disability and/or autism into work.
Supported internship work experience placements
We are always looking to work with employers who can offer
work experience
Work experience is when you try out a job to help you learn new skills.
to our learners. Watch our video to hear from some of our current employer partners about their highly rewarding experiences of providing work
experience
Experience is when you have learned or tried something before.
to our learners.
What do we ask for from employers who offer work experience?
Learners on our supported internships A work placement for young people with additional needs, where they get support from a job coach. are required to complete a minimum of 420 hours of work experience between September and July. If you do not think your business can provide this many hours, then you may wish to consider working with learners on our pre-internships who complete 45 hours of work experience, usually between March and July.
Work experience placements will need to be in areas that learners on our courses can travel to in London, Birmingham, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire or Worcestershire.
We recognise that not every employer we work with will have vacancies, but where possible, we hope our partners can offer paid job offers to learners at the end of their work experience placements where they have performed well in the role. We encourage our employer partners to think of work experience placements as a recruitment process.
To ensure good communication and partnership working throughout work experience placements, we ask that representatives from employers attend regular reviews with our employer engagement officers and skills coaches. Where possible, we
advocate
An advocate is a person who can help you have your say. An advocate can speak up for you if you find it hard.
for the introduction of reasonable adjustments for learners that need them like later start times, assistive technology (we can support with Access to Work claims) and job carving - where roles are adjusted to suit specific skill sets.
How else can employers support us?
Besides offering work experience, employers can also support our learners through:
- Opportunities to visit work sites
- Opportunities to hear from employees about their work and sector
- Support to prepare for interviews.
Organisations Organisations are groups like companies and businesses. can also raise funds for Mencap. Visit our corporate partnerships page to learn more or contact corporate fundraising.
"We have hired people [following supported internship work experience placements] who we would not have otherwise identified through our usual recruitment processes. Mencap's skill coaches ensure the right level of support is provider to the learner and employer and every one of our colleagues involved has grown and learnt from the partnership."
Training
Manager
A manager is a boss at work. They tell you what you need to do and give you support if you need it.
, Wincanton.
How we support employers
In-work support
Our skills coaches attend work experience placements with our learners to help them understand and complete workplace tasks. They also work with employers' teams to help them understand how best to support and communicate with learners and to make reasonable adjustments where required.
Learning Disability Awareness training
Employers who offer work experience placements to our learners benefit from our Learning Disability Awareness (LDA) training sessions, co-delivered by a trainer with lived experience of learning disability. LDA covers topics like what is a learning disability, reasonable adjustments and communication.
Useful resources for employers
We have created a range of helpful fact sheets for employers on a number of topics related to supporting people with a learning disability to access the workplace.
Select from the buttons on the right to find out more.
Our employer awards
We recognise the support of our employer partners with monthly employer of the month awards and an annual award ceremony where we celebrate all the different ways employers champion inclusion. Could your organisation be one of our 2026 winners?
Get in touch
To discuss working with us through offering work experience placements and/or other employer engagement activities, please complete our expression of interest form for employers.
Express your interest in working with us
Or you can email us at [email protected]
If you would like to find out how your business could support Mencap through fundraising you can find out more on Mencap's
website
A website is a page you can go to on the internet like Google or YouTube.
.
Our Skills Coaches are there to support you as employers, as well as the learners in placement. They help learners build confidence and competence in their roles, and work alongside your staff to ensure they feel equipped to support the learner independently over time. Support is gradually reduced as learners grow more confident, with the aim of promoting
independence
Independence means doing things on your own. Making your own choices.
by the end of the programme. Importantly, your team will gain skills, tools, and confidence in working with people with a learning disability.
We take proactive steps to minimise risk and provide reassurance. Before a placement begins, we complete Risk Assessments, One Page Profiles, Health & Safety Questionnaires, and Three-Way Agreements with you. We also require all employers to hold the correct insurance cover (Employer Liability Insurance) and can support you with any questions around this. Throughout the placement, our Skills Coaches maintain regular contact, offering practical help and guidance Guidance means being given clear instructions to be able to do something well. to resolve any issues quickly and collaboratively.
Tasks can be tailored to learners' strengths and your business needs. We ensure the role is meaningful for the learner and adds real value to your team. Our employer engagement team can work with you to design roles and placements suited to individual learners and your business needs, job carving roles - where different elements of different roles are blended to create a new role - if required. Our learners are capable of so much and have many different skillsets, so we can support you to meet a wide range of hiring needs.
There’s no requirement to offer a job at the end of a placement. If things go well and you’d like to offer paid work or a continued voluntary role, that’s fantastic. If not, the learner still gains vital experience and improved confidence which our team supports them to leverage in applying for other paid jobs. Our skills coaches and employer engagement team will communicate with you regularly to understand the possibility of paid job offers and what we need to do to secure these for learners.
