DESIGN - Disabled Employability Signaling

“One in six people in the European Union (EU) has a disability that ranges from mild to severe making around 80 million who are often prevented from taking part fully in society & the economy because of environmental and attitudinal barriers. For people with disabilities the rate of poverty is 70% higher than the average partly due to limited access to employment.” (COM(2010) 636 final - European Disability Strategy (EDS) 2010-2020.

 

DESIGN project stands for finding the most suitable person for a job, for breaking discrimination cycles and society prejudice barriers that people with disability are facing. Its main goal was to deliver high job placement counselling services, to disable people and to employers that have suitable job places.

 

The project goals were:

a) To develop new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches of learning in context of disabled persons job placement services (JPS).

b) To identify the suitable disabled person assessment on employability issues to support more effective JPS in matters of providing better counselling in labour market integration.

c) To develop a learning programme focus on improving JPS professionals key transversal and professional competencies.

d) To create a disabled person JPS communication toolkit to increase employers engagement and job mediation services effectiveness.

e) Pilot the JPS model supporting about 96 unemployed disabled persons  finding suitable job place and retaining it, increasing the learning curve and productivity of both employers and placed employees.

f) Setup a learning network platform focus on exchange of good practices, mutual development and lobbying on disabled persons employability.

Year(s): 2016 – 2019

Target group(s): People with responsibilities to engage with employers; Disabled people who want to apply to a job

Website or other online channels: http://design-disability.weebly.com/

Methodology

All the project plan was defined to achieve this results. It includes intellectual outputs, multiplier events or learning, training & teaching activities & indicators of achievement description.

The project focused on the development of a learning network platform to support Social Services providers, specialised in disabled persons job placement and to increase the job profiling of disabled persons. It is expected a better management of job placement services, stronger networking and effectiveness in employers’ engagement and most of all, higher rate of disabled persons employability.

To accomplish this goal, DESIGN developed a set of training courses to empower the services dealing with disabled person's employability, with the participation of those people with responsibilities to engage with employers, but also to fine-tune the evaluation, counselling and guidance provided to the disabled person who want to apply to a job.

Type of product

Online resource Course / Training

Brief description of the outcomes

DESIGN project started with an evidence review that was developed by the partnership and that it is focused on good practices that promote the employability of persons with disabilities in the open labor market. Then partners focused on the development of training courses to empower the services dealing with disabled person's employability. DESIGN also included a fine-tuning focused on the evaluation, counselling and guidance provided to the disabled person who wants to apply for a job. Finally, DESIGN project counted with the development of a platform to support Social Service providers namely in relation to the employability of people with disabilities.

Impact on target groups / Transferability potential

This project has a website still available where it is possible to find and download the main products and resources that were developed under DESIGN project.

The first product available to consult and download is an Evidence Review on people with disabilities job placement services that was developed In 2017 by the partnership of the project. This report is divided into four main sections: the first section was this one  –  Introduction and Methodology; the second will follow this brief introduction and will present the key-findings of each country report; section two will present 5 promising practices per country; section three will present national recommendations to influence policy-makers and job placement services reforms that were built based on the evidence review.

The second product available is a Manual focused on a DESIGN Job Profile Assessment tool, which specifications include examples and resources.

The job Placement Service Learning Programme (Manual) is also available, as well as the report on the pilot of this learning program, where it is possible to see that results show that participants were very satisfied with the training and improved their skills through the self-assessment component.

Finally, it is also possible to consult and download a Communication Toolkit that was developed to inspire the managers to find the most suitable job for a person with disabilities. A set of specific recommendations and tips tailored on the needs of the JPS Managers are available, as well as the resources that provide a more practical guidance.

This project was considered a Good Practice.

Promoter of the initiative: AFEJI

Country: France

Languages available: English French Portuguese

Website or other online channels: https://www.afeji.org/