I-CAN v6 and Employment: How Life Long Learning Assesses Your Capacity to Work and Study

Understanding the most misunderstood domain in the I-CAN v6

The NDIS was partly created to support people with disability to participate in economic and community life — including employment and education. For many participants, the ability to work, to undertake vocational training, or to pursue further education is central to their quality of life and their goals.

Yet life long learning — Life Long Learning is consistently one of the most underdocumented domains in the I-CAN v6 assessment. Participants either leave it largely blank, describe it in vague terms, or don't realise how much their employment situation should be captured here.

Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information about the I-CAN v6 assessment framework as at October 2026, following the passage of the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 on 19 August 2026. The I-CAN v6 rollout begins 1 April 2027. This guide does not constitute professional disability support or legal advice. For personalised guidance, consult a disability advocate, NDIS planner, or support coordinator.

This guide explains what life long learning actually covers, how to describe your employment situation accurately whether you are working, want to work, or cannot work, and what evidence helps the assessor understand your real circumstances.

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What "Life Long Learning" Actually Means

The name is genuinely misleading.

Life Long Learning is the official CDS domain name, but for most adults in the NDIS, this domain is primarily about employment and the functional capacity that employment requires. It covers:

• Participation in paid employment — whether full-time, part-time, casual, supported, or sheltered
• Participation in vocational training — TAFE, apprenticeships, pre-vocational programs, supported employment pathways
• Participation in further education — university, community education, online learning
• The acquisition of life skills that enable employment or educational participation — things like time management, workplace communication, task initiation, routine management
• Barriers to employment participation — what prevents you from working or studying, even if you would like to

The domain is not just about school, and it is not limited to children. It is about your adult capacity to participate in the kinds of structured, purposeful activity that work and learning represent.

What it does not cover is the funding of employment support services themselves. Those are a separate NDIS funding line, delivered through programs like Disability Employment Services. life long learning measures your functional capacity — the supports and limitations that shape your relationship with employment and education.

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life long learning vs Employment Support Funding: The Important Distinction

Before going further, it is worth being clear about a distinction that confuses many participants.

Life Long Learning is a functional assessment. It measures whether and how your disability affects your capacity to participate in work, training, and education. It captures things like:

• Whether you can sustain concentration for a standard workday
• Whether you can manage workplace social interactions independently
• Whether physical limitations restrict the type of work you can do
• Whether fatigue, pain, or mental health episodes regularly prevent attendance
• What supports make work possible, and what would happen without them

Employment support funding — through programs like Disability Employment Services (DES) or Supported Employment — is a separate government program with its own eligibility and funding stream. This is not typically funded directly from NDIS plans.

However, there is a critical link between the two: the supports that make employment participation possible — such as transport assistance, communication devices, attendant care in the morning that allows you to arrive at work, or a support worker who helps with work-related tasks — may be NDIS-funded. Poor life long learning documentation can mean these enabling supports are under-resourced in your plan, making employment participation harder or impossible.

The NDIS I-CAN v6 Evidence Guide explains in more detail how the assessment captures support needs across all domains, and how your documentation shapes the funding that results.

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Three Situations, Three Documentation Approaches

Participants come to life long learning in very different situations. Each requires a different approach.

Situation 1: You Are Currently Working

If you are currently in paid employment — even part-time, casual, or supported — life long learning is about capturing what makes that employment possible and what its real cost is.

The risk for working participants is that the assessor sees employment as evidence that the domain is not significantly impacted. The opposite may be true: you may be working precisely because significant supports are in place, and the genuine cost to your health and daily functioning may be high.

Document the supports that make work possible:

• Workplace adjustments (flexible hours, modified duties, rest breaks, physical modifications)
• Assistive technology you use at work
• A support worker who assists with work tasks or transport
• Disability Employment Services involvement
• Medication or treatment regimes that enable daily functioning

Document what the job costs you:

• Fatigue after work shifts and recovery time required
• Pain levels during or after work
• Mental health impact of workplace demands
• Activities you cannot manage on work days due to energy expenditure at work
• Whether you use your NDIS-funded supports more heavily on work days

Document what would happen without those supports:

• If workplace adjustments were removed, could you continue the job?
• If your attendant care or morning support was not in place, could you attend?
• If your current medication was unavailable, what would your work capacity be?

A statement like: "I work 15 hours per week in a supported role with flexible scheduling. After each shift I require a 3–4 hour rest period and cannot manage household tasks or other activities that day. Without the flexible scheduling accommodation, I could not sustain attendance." tells the assessor far more than "I work part-time."

Situation 2: You Want to Work But Currently Cannot

This is one of the most important situations to document thoroughly, and one of the most commonly underdescribed.

If you have employment goals but specific functional barriers prevent you from pursuing them currently, life long learning is the place to describe those barriers in detail.

Document the specific functional barriers:

• Inability to sustain concentration for the minimum hours required
• Mental health episodes that make consistent attendance impossible
• Physical limitations that preclude the types of work available in your area
• Communication difficulties that prevent you from functioning in a typical workplace
• Inability to manage workplace routines, instructions, or social requirements independently

Document what has been tried:

• Previous employment attempts and why they ended
• Vocational rehabilitation programs you have participated in
• Work trials or supported employment arrangements that were unsuccessful
• DES assessments or interventions

Document what would need to change:

• What supports, treatments, or changes to your condition would make employment achievable?
• What type of employment might be possible with the right supports?
• What are the specific steps between where you are now and employment participation?

This is not defeatist documentation — it is an honest account of where you are and what is needed. It supports appropriate planning for employment pathway supports, rather than having the assessor assume employment participation is not a goal or a need.

Situation 3: You Are Not Working and Not Seeking Employment Due to Disability Severity

This is a valid and important situation that many participants feel uncomfortable documenting directly. There can be a sense of stigma or judgment attached to recording that employment is not a realistic goal.

The I-CAN v6 assessment is not designed to judge or penalise this. It is designed to accurately capture your functional situation so that the supports you need are appropriately resourced.

If your disability is such that employment is not a realistic or safe prospect in your current circumstances, document this clearly:

• What functional limitations preclude employment — and be specific
• What the impact of employment demands would be on your health and daily functioning
• Whether this has been assessed by a vocational rehabilitation professional or OT
• What you do participate in instead — volunteer activities, day programs, community engagement — and what support these require

Leaving this undocumented does not help you. It may lead to assumptions that employment participation could be increased with minor support, resulting in an inaccurate plan.

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Writing in Functional Language, Not Diagnosis Language

This principle applies across all 12 I-CAN v6 domains, but it is particularly important in life long learning because employment capacity is highly sensitive to the gap between a diagnosis label and actual daily functioning.

Diagnosis language tells the assessor what condition you have. Functional language tells them what you can and cannot do.

Compare:

The guide on describing support needs for your NDIS assessment covers this in more depth and provides additional examples across all domains.

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Assistive Technology, Workplace Adjustments, and Employment Tools

If assistive technology or workplace adjustments are part of how you participate in employment or education, these should be explicitly described in life long learning.

**Relevant assistive technology for **

• Communication devices or software (AAC, speech-to-text, captioning)
• Cognitive aids — reminders, scheduling apps, task management tools
• Mobility aids that enable workplace access
• Ergonomic equipment that allows sustained seated or standing activity
• Screen readers, magnification software, or other accessibility tools

Relevant workplace adjustments:

• Flexible hours, reduced hours, or variable scheduling
• Modified duties that match your functional capacity
• Additional break periods
• Work-from-home arrangements
• A designated quiet space or reduced sensory environment
• A buddy, mentor, or workplace support person

For each piece of assistive technology or adjustment, document: what it is, what it enables you to do, and what would happen if it were removed.

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Education and Vocational Training

life long learning also covers your participation in formal and informal learning as an adult.

If you are currently studying — at university, TAFE, through an online program, or in a community education setting — document:

• What accommodations or adjustments enable your participation
• What support is provided by the institution's disability services
• What NDIS-funded supports contribute to your ability to study
• What the barriers to increasing your study load or progressing are

If you are undertaking vocational training or a pre-employment program, the same principles apply. The domain is interested in your functional capacity to engage with structured learning, not just your academic achievement.

If you had to stop studying due to your disability, documenting this — what you were studying, when you stopped, why your disability made continuation impossible — is valuable information that contextualises your current situation.

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How to Stop life long learning Being Treated as Irrelevant

Some participants find that the assessor spends little time on life long learning, or that the conversation moves quickly to other areas. The structured I-CAN v6 interview covers all 12 domains, but the depth of exploration in each area can vary based on how the participant presents.

To ensure life long learning receives appropriate attention:

• Prepare a written summary of your employment and education situation before the assessment and bring it with you
• Flag its relevance explicitly early in the assessment: "I want to make sure we spend time on Life Long Learning because my work capacity is significantly affected by my disability"
• Have supporting documents ready — employer letters, DES reports, OT work capacity assessment
• Be specific and concrete — general statements invite quick movement to the next domain; specific, detailed accounts invite the assessor to explore further

The 12 I-CAN v6 Domains Explained article describes how all 12 domains contribute to the overall assessment picture, and how each intersects with the others.

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Cross-Domain Connections

life long learning does not exist in isolation. Your employment and education capacity is shaped by limitations in other domains, and describing these connections helps the assessor understand the full picture.

communication — Communication: If communication difficulties affect your ability to participate in workplace conversations, follow instructions, or engage with supervisors and colleagues, this directly constrains your employment capacity. Document the link.

mental and emotional health — Mental and Emotional Health: Mental health conditions are among the most common barriers to sustained employment. Fluctuating mental health, episodes of acute illness, medication side effects, and the impact of workplace stress all belong in mental and emotional health and directly inform life long learning.

mobility — Mobility: If physical limitations restrict the type of work available to you, or if fatigue from mobility demands affects your ability to work a full day, this connection should be made explicit.

general tasks and demands — General Tasks and Demands: This domain covers your capacity to carry out tasks requiring planning, organisation, attention, and problem-solving. Limitations here directly affect your ability to function in employment and education settings.

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Evidence That Carries Weight

The strongest evidence for life long learning includes:

• OT work capacity assessment — a formal functional assessment of your capacity for employment, typically the most authoritative document for this domain
• Vocational rehabilitation reports — from a vocational rehabilitation specialist who has assessed your employment prospects and barriers
• DES provider assessment reports — if you have worked with a Disability Employment Services provider, their assessment of your work capacity and barriers is directly relevant
• Employer or workplace support letters — a letter from your employer describing adjustments in place, hours accommodated, and observations of your workplace needs
• Education disability services documentation — letters from university or TAFE disability support offices describing accommodations provided
• Allied health letters describing functional barriers — from your OT, psychologist, physiotherapist, or other treating professionals, using functional language to describe what prevents or limits employment participation

If you have worked with multiple employment programs or vocational supports, gather documentation from all of them. The pattern of what has been tried and what has and hasn't worked is itself evidence about your employment capacity.

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Putting It Together: Your life long learning Preparation

Before your I-CAN v6 assessment, prepare a written summary for life long learning that covers:

• Your current employment or education situation
• What supports make your current participation possible (if any)
• What the real cost of participation is to your health and daily functioning
• What barriers prevent you from working more, or from working at all
• What employment or education goals you have, and what would need to be in place to pursue them
• What assistive technology or adjustments you use
• What evidence you have — and what you have brought to the assessment

ICANReady is designed to help you build exactly this kind of structured preparation across all 12 I-CAN domains — so that when you walk into your assessment, you are ready.

Try ICANReady free →

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Sources

• Centre for Disability Studies, I-CAN v6 Framework, University of Sydney
• NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026, passed 19 August 2026
• National Disability Insurance Agency, NDIS Support Needs Assessment — Participant Information (2026)
• Disability Employment Australia, Sector Overview 2025–2026
• National Disability Services, Supported Employment and I-CAN v6 Briefing Paper (2026)