Work4all

Context/Background An increasing group of persons have challenges to enter and participate at the open labour market. Especially persons with a disability and having qualifications on a lower level, face a future without realistic chances of participating in the society by finding appropriate employment fitting to their qualifications and competencies. These challenges exist in many countries. It is therefore that service providers and educators of persons with a disability are looking for new strategies to create more chances in entering and participating in the labour market. Traditional employment strategies for students with a disability mainly focus on the individual student with a disability. Strategies focusing on the added value for the employer are rarely used or neglected. The approach is that a new strategy, focusing on the added value for the employer, will increase the opportunities for students with a disability and low formal qualifications. This requires a paradigm shift. This new strategy of creating jobs that benefits employers, is called Inclusive Job Design. Inclusive Job Design is a comprehensive term for an employer-oriented method to create sustainable employment for persons with disabilities whose chances of competitive employment are limited, especially for those who have a low level of qualification and limited competences. The method of Inclusive Job Design implies the re-designing of work processes, analyzing and splitting the job-activities of existing jobs in various levels of complexity. The aim of this method is to create a positive business case for the employer and in the same time to create inclusive employment opportunities for the student with a disability. Objectives The project aim was to enlarge the sustainable employment opportunities in the open labour market for VET students with a disability by: • building up the capacity of those organisation’s providing employment services by implementing the methodology of Inclusive Job Design. • building up specific competencies of VET providers (e.g. employment specialists) working with VET students with disabilities. The expected results in the project were: • To develop and to test a curriculum for VET providers based on the Inclusive Job Design concept. • To create sustainable partnerships between VET Providers and Employers. • To increase the knowledge of project partners about Inclusive Job Design, Corporate Social Responsibility and Inclusive Employment strategies for students with a disability. • To increase the competences of the project partners to apply the Inclusive Job Design- Methodology. • To increase the number of successful and sustainable placement opportunities for VET students with a disability into the labour market (by using the Inclusive Job Design method). In order to achieve the expected results, 4 Intellectual Outputs were produced, tested and finalised. IO1. Self-Assessment Instrument With this self-assessment tool, organisations are able to identify strengths and issues for improvement that are considered to be key factors for implementing the methodology of Inclusive Job Design. IO2. Curriculum for employment specialists The curriculum is an education and training program for implementing Inclusive Job Design methodology. It also includes examples of good practices. The curriculum is meant for employment specialists who facilitate and support the job finding process. IO3. Manual for employment specialists The manual consists of guidelines for applying the methodology of Inclusive Job Design. The manual is meant for supporting VET providers in applying the methodology of Inclusive Job Design for supporting companies to increase their efficiency and to create sustainable employment for students with a disability. IO4. Guidelines and recommendations for VET providers The guidelines for VET providers is a descriptive study on feasibility of implementing Inclusive Job Design. It describes barriers and facilitators of implementing the Inclusive Job Design methodology in the countries of the project partners. Profile of the participants In the project we worked with 2 expert partners and 7 VET providers. The experts were selected for their expertise and experiences in building up competences and applying the method of Inclusive Job Design. Both partners had successful experiences in international projects and they have skills and competences to develop information, learning and training materials in an international context and they had experiences in evaluating both processes and results. As for the VET partners, these were employment specialists of the VET provider, working with VET students in a dis-advanced position. Example of employees involved are: apprenticeship trainers, vocational rehabilitation specialists, labour office employment specialists, trainers of jobseekers. From each VET provider, 2 staff members of each of these partners participated in the project. Results, impact and longer term benefits Reflecting on the expected results, all intellectual outputs(including the curriculum for VET providers) have been developed and tested. These outputs are posted on the project website in all languages of project partners. Knowledge and competences of the project partners are increased. Also sustainable partnerships between VET providers and employers and successful and sustainable placement opportunities have been increased. The achievement of placement opportunities is still low. The Covid-19 pandemic and its International, National and Local measures of restriction, has limited impact on this objective. Initiatives to build up capacity outside the partnership have been started up in Austria and Norway after removing the restrictions. This is later than planned and will take place after the project now the Covid-19 restrictions are less. Evaluation shows that the project has had significant impact on creating awareness and, though no goal at itself in the project, a limited impact on the actual placement of VET students with a disability. The majority of the participants stated in the closing meeting that, because of participating in the project, they are more focused on creating added value for employers as the starting point as a starting point their employement activities. The results of this evaluation are posted on the project website under 7.10.