“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
                                                 Confucius, Circa 551 - 479

As someone who has been involved in supported employment for many years, what struck me when I became involved in supported living services were the fundamental cultural differences between the two in their approaches to supporting people.

Historically, supported employment services are funded in such a way that they have targets to meet i.e. a number of people who must become independent in employment each year. In order to achieve this, those who support people with learning difficulties use specific techniques. Much of the supported employment world draws on the values of Dr Marc Gold who developed the Try Another Way (TAW) methodology which has been used throughout the world since the 60’s and has proven to be a highly successful way of helping people to achieve meaningful independence in employment.