IT takes hard work, skill and stamina to work in a busy hotel kitchen.

Not everyone is cut out for it but 17-year-old Aaron Moore thrives on it. He works in a team of four chefs at Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld and the fact that he has a learning disability has not held him back, thanks to the support he gets from his fellow chefs.

"I was really busy yesterday," he says. "We were running around like headless chickens doing 230 covers, just at lunchtime.

"The other chefs say 'thank you, you've been really helpful' and it makes me feel brilliant."

John Scrimgeour, operations manager at Westerwood, has been hugely impressed by Aaron, who first came to the hotel on work experience five months ago just after leaving school and is now doing a modern apprenticeship.

"Our head chef demands attendance, reliability, punctuality and attitude, and that's where Aaron has delighted us. He's Mr Punctual and is always very good with attendance. You get used to seeing young guys here who have off days: it doesn't happen with Aaron.

"Aaron is working with a mentor, Stephen McDowall, the pastry chef, and it's worked out brilliantly. Steph's absolutely brilliant with the kids and he's got a lot of time for Aaron.

"Aaron has taken a lot of work off the pastry chef's role by doing the bread rolls, which he makes from flour onwards. That has a huge business benefit for us, as it makes a pounds and pence saving.

"As long as Aaron continues the progress he is making, I would expect him to become a commis chef within the next 18 months, when he would get paid more."

Aaron, who has autism, has always loved cooking - he makes a mean spaghetti bolognese and worked in the bistro of his school, Glencryan - but finding employment can be very difficult for people with learning disabilities.

The latest Scottish Government figures suggest that only 13% of adults who have a learning disability were in employment or training for employment in 2012, even though more than 60% want to work. As a consequence, people with learning disabilities are one of Scotland's most socially excluded groups.

That's where the charity Enable Scotland comes in. It supports nearly 1000 people with learning disabilities to find or maintain employment every year. After Aaron left school in June, Enable Scotland workers supported him to build up his CV and start work experience at Westerwood.

Enable - the charity supported by this year's Herald Christmas Appeal - helps people find work by sitting down with each individual to pin down their ambitions, looking at how they can develop the skills to achieve their goal. It partners with hundreds of employers to provide work experience.

An important part of Enable's work is to challenge public perceptions about the type of jobs people with learning disabilities can do. Enable staff work closely with the work experience coordinators at Glencryan special needs school, whose deputy head teacher, Alison Mitchell, says that sometimes employers have preconceived ideas about people with learning disabilities.

"They think someone will need to babysit them." But when senior staff from hotels visit the state-of-the-art school bistro staffed by the pupils, they are "bowled over" by the young people's professionalism. Aaron, she says, is a "fantastic young man".

Aaron is grateful to Enable staff for their help. "It was exciting getting paid for the first time and I definitely want to save up and get a flat," he says. "I'd like to try and move up in the chef industry."

HOW TO DONATE TO OUR APPEAL

The Herald ENABLE Scotland Christmas Appeal will support the work of Scotland's leading charity for children, young people and adults who have a learning disability and their families and carers.

ENABLE Scotland delivers projects throughout Scotland and provides information and advice, supporting people who have a learning disability to participate in education, live, work and take part in their communities - living the life they want.

Make cheques payable to ENABLEScotland and send to: Herald ENABLE Christmas Appeal,

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ENABLE Scotland, INSPIRE House, 3 Renshaw Place, Holytown, Motherwell, ML1 4UF.

Donate online at www.enable.org.uk

Freephone hotline no: 08000 192698