DESIGN stands for finding the most suitable person for a job, breaking discrimination cycles and society prejudice barriers persons with disability face. We want to deliver high job placement counselling services both to disabled persons and those employers’ with suitable job places.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. There are several million EU citizens with a disability. They are one of the largest groups of disadvantaged citizens in the EU. They have traditionally experienced institutional segregation, or have been deprived of educational and employment opportunities altogether.DESIGN stands up to create a quality employment inclusive methodology: a learning network platform to support Social Services providers, specialised in disabled persons job placement. It was designed taking into account The Education and Training 2020 Strategic Framework, the United Nations Convention on The Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the European Commission’s Disability Strategy 2010-2020. Project conception forecasted some objectives:. Identify the suitable disabled person assessment on employability issues to support more effective JPS in matters of providing better counselling in labour market integration. Develop a learning programme focus on improving 96 JPS professionals (24 per country) key transversal and professional competencies and selecting 32 (8 per country) to engage in transnational activities. Create a disabled person JPS communication toolkit to increase employers engagement and job mediation services effectiveness testing it with 48 employers (12 per country). Pilot the JPS model supporting about 96 unemployed disabled persons (24 per country) finding suitable job place and retaining it, increasing the learning curve and productivity of both employers and placed employeesDESIGN wants to deliver high job placement counselling services (JPS), that will benefit both, disabled persons (DP) & those employers’ with suitable job places.The project proposes to increase the job profiling of disabled persons, better management of job placement services, stronger networking and effectiveness in employers engagement and most of all, higher rate of disabled person employability. To do this, the project proposes to train 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. In terms of fine-tuning partners want to further develop cognitive abilities tests and mediation processes. In terms of this incremental innovation the partnership hopes to have access to some existent tests which require licensing, e.g. CASPER of Cognitrom.The intellectual outputs will be: IO1-Evidence review on disabled persons job placement servicesIO2-Job Profile Assessment tool and manualIO3-Job Placement Services Learning programme manualIO4-Communication toolkitIO5-Job Placement Services modelProject methodology will follow new product development standards, processes&structure since this project is based in development of innovation priority. Project will start by making an evidence review on job placement services good practices (focus on disabled persons - DP profiling)&existing projects addressing employers involvement in DP work placement (IO1). The DESIGN project foresees to develop this approach using IT tools on profiling DP, and on training methods and techniques - Social Services providers (learning management system platform). These tools don’t exist and are completely new on this field. Another innovation is to pack the experience and knowledge to make it available for effective knowledge transference, among stakeholders. The Job Placement Services Learning programme and the implementation model (IO5) is quite new. Finally, the toolkit to increase employers engagement and job mediation services effectiveness. The impact of the DESIGN project will result in direct actions for disabled persons (DP) (empowering their control and participation in their employability process), NGO’s (tackling job placement services (JPS), weaknesses and increasing JPS managers; DP profiling processes to improve labour market integration), employers (improving the awareness and participation in disabled persons recruitment and selection) and participating organisations (increasing their capacity to offer effective training on job placement qualification).It’s expectable that DESIGN project empower JPS managers and practitioners by providing them with profiling tools and training to gain knowledge, skills, confidence, empathy and transversal skills necessary for guidance & counselling of disabled persons seeking for jobs, & also to network and match job seekers with employers.
The DESIGN project aimed to find the most appropriate person for a job, to break the cycles of discrimination and prejudice in society that hinder the professional integration of people with disabilities into the mainstream. For people with disabilities, the poverty rate is 70% higher than the average, partly because of limited access to employment. COM(2010) 636 final - European Disability Strategy (EDS) 2010-2020. Several million citizens of the European Union (EU) have a disability. They are one of the largest groups of disadvantaged citizens in the EU. They have traditionally experienced institutional segregation, or have been totally deprived of educational and employment opportunities. DESIGN has made it possible to create a quality inclusive employment methodology based on tools to support social service providers specialising in the professional integration of people with disabilities. These tools have been developed taking into account the Education and Training 2020 Strategic Framework, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the European Commission's Strategy 2010-2020 on Disability. The project partnership brought together seven organizations from four countries: - France: Afeji (Project Coordinator), a charitable association with a social vocation and Andicat, the National Association of Directors and Executives of Establishments and Services of Assistance through Work (ESAT). - Portugal: Aproximar, social solidarity cooperative and the AFID Diferença foundation. - Romania: ASSOC, association for the social and solidarity economy and EaSI, the European association for social innovation. - Hungary: the Hand in Hand Foundation. The objectives of the project were: -Identify the appropriate assessment of the disabled person on employability issues in order to support a more effective employment integration service in terms of labour market integration. -Develop a learning programme focused on improving the key transversal and professional skills of 96 professionals (24 per country) and select 32 (8 per country) to participate in transnational activities. -To create a communication tool to help integration services in their relations with employers. -Create a model of professional integration service for people with disabilities that is accessible and transferable to any organization To achieve these objectives, the partners have developed several intellectual productions: - O1-Evidence review on disabled persons job placement services; a review of evidence on good practices in services for the professional integration of people with disabilities; - O2-Job Profile Assessment Tool and platform; which consists of a new assessment tool and an online platform to match profiles of people with disabilities with job offers published by companies; - O3-Job Placement Service Learning Programme Manual; b-learning training programme tested in 4 countries with a total of 96 participants; - O4 - Communication Toolkit; communication tool to help the relationship between employment services, people with disabilities and employers; - O5 - Job Placement Service Model; guide presenting the DESIGN model for setting up or reorganising a service specialised in the professional integration of people with disabilities. This guide is accessible and transferable to any organization. The project also gave rise to other activities such as: - The realization of 3 learning activities of 5 five days each in France, Hungary and Portugal. - The organization of 7 dissemination events in France, Hungary, Portugal and Romania to disseminate the results of the project. Thus, DESIGN has made it possible to chart a course to better prepare professionals for the integration of people with disabilities and employers into the open labour market, while at the same time raising their awareness of inclusion. All project results are available on the project website: https://www.design-disability.org/