Ask not what employers can do for you……

Presenters

• Ms. Grainne Berrill Project Coordinator WALK PEER Programme (Louth)

• Ms. Carol Owen Walkways Coordinator (Wales)

• Ms. Rachel Stevens Director, Empowerall,

Introduction• Human Potential - Challenges us to

maximize!• Our Beliefs - Disability & Careers?• Traditional Services - How are we doing?

• Why should / would employers hire people with disabilities?

• How can we communicate better with employers to get people with disabilities into employment?

• The Walkways PEER Model.

Employment Pop Quiz

Activity to set the context for the basis of needing to engage with employers on a

business level to increase participation of people with disabilities in the open labour

market

Don’t Waste my PotentialChallenge your Beliefs

Beliefs• Beliefs are not necessarily what’s true or

factual in the real world. • The power of each belief comes only from

the individual believer. • That means you can believe whatever you

want to believe. As long as you believe it to be true, it will be true in your life.

Beliefs• Consequently, you will attract events,

experiences and people in your life to match your beliefs. For this reason, it is crucial to adopt only the beliefs that serve you and to let go of those beliefs that limit you.

• What are your beliefs about people with disabilities working in the open labour market?

Beliefs• Analyse your beliefs?• Are they helping or hindering?• Do they move you forward

or hold you back?• Do your beliefs guide you to create a

presence in someone’s life, that increases or decreases their independence?

Traditional Services• Welfare Dependency• Service Dependency• Social Dependency• Human Rights Dependency

• Do people that come into services ever leave?

• What does progression & career development look like for them?

What are your beliefs about people who have a disability and careers?

The Facts• An ESRI report says, people with

disabilities in Ireland are half as likely to be employed as their non-disabled peers.

• 36% of people with a disability are employed compared with 77% of other adults.

• Census 2011 shows that youth unemployment in Ireland is running at 38% while we are in a crisis at 14% in the general population.

What are the employers missing?

• An awareness of the capabilities of people with disabilities to do paid work i.e. sustain a job.

• An understanding of what supported employment is.

• The skills and confidence to communicate with people with disabilities.

• The business case for hiring people with disabilities.

• The law

Why should employers hire people with disabilities?

• It is the right thing to do! • If they can do the job?• Inclusion and diversity.• Corporate social responsibility.• It is the right thing to do! • The Employment Equality Acts 1998-2011

outlaw discrimination on the grounds of disability in employment.

Why would employers hire people with disabilities

• People with disabilities can do the job.• It made good business sense.• If the right supports were in place for the

employee. and the employer.• If it had a positive effect on the workforce.

Walkways PEER ProgrammeProviding Equal Employment Routes

• An innovative early intervention model, to engage and support progression towards education, training and economic activity

• Co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Programme 2007-2013 (Interreg 4A)

• A person centered, collaborative approach which supports the development of individual personal progression plans and actions to achieve the individual’s employment goals

Walkways PEER Programme Beliefs

• Every person is able to do a job when and if the time is right in their lives.

• A job means getting paid for doing work at the open labour market rate, in the same way as other colleagues and having equal employment rights

• The number of hours per day or week that a person can actually work is different for everybody.

• Support to gain and maintain employment should be for as long as a person needs. No more and no less.

Walkways PEER ProgrammeApproach

• Quality “Job Matching” is paramount before contacting employers.

• Know exactly what you want when you contact an employer.

• Focus on the hidden jobs market.• Offer the employer something extra of

value.• Always do what you say you are going to do!

Walkways PEER ProgrammeExperience

• Walkways PEER programme Video• Walkways PEER participant talks of their

experience on the programme• An employer talks about their experience

of hiring a Walkways PEER Participant• Rachel Steven’s, Empowerall Evaluation

team.

Conclusion• Results of the “Employment Pop Quiz”• Summary of presentation key points• Questions & Answers• Close