Learning Support Responsibilities Preparation
Transition into employment
Introduction
All academic, trades and training programmes provide support and training for disabled learners and tauira that leads to them gaining employment.
Best practice standards
- In the first instance, organisational or other career service staff provide support and training for all disabled learners about successful transition into employment, work experience, internships, vocational placements and job opportunities.
- There is support for all disabled learners with the development of job applications, CVs, interview and other employment skills and strategies to successfully provide personal information about impairment related support to employers.
- Disability support and other staff talk with disabled learners about how their learning support in a tertiary environment can be translated into workplace support, and the skills and assistive technology that they will require in employment.
- Tertiary providers build partnerships with disability related employment services that can assist disabled learners with their transition into employment.
- There are feedback processes for disabled learners that indicate this support and training is leading to the successful transition of disabled learners into employment, supported by monitoring and evaluation.
“We need to start talking about merging and melding what happens in universities and polytechnics, and in the workplace. So I think if we can do anything with Kia Ōrite, we can start to merge what’s happening in the lecture theatres and in the job space.”
- Disability Community Agency Staff.
Ideas and resources
- MSD Lead Toolkit is a valuable resource for leaders, managers and human resource professionals to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for disabled people.
- Employment Today Magazine - The forgotten 20 percent (2020).
- Supporting disabled students with disability beyond higher education.
- The AND programme in Australia is brilliant and their internship programme is world-class. Their stepping into internship programme has been running for years and is specifically designed for tertiary disabled learners that are exiting university and going into internships.
“If we could start to build in some opportunities for early engagement, internships, opportunities to meet and greet socially, those types of opportunities would be incredibly useful and helpful…"
“For many employers it is a bit of a risk to take onboard an employee with a disability. So if we’ve started to build up that relationship over the period of three years, they already know that person, they have a very close relationship with them, they’re invested in them...”
- Employment Agency, Specialist Interest Group.
- Campus Morning Mail article by David Eckstein; Three positive ways to redefine disability as a source of career strength.
- MyPlus work in the disability and employment space in the UK, and have developed a Toolkit for university staff supporting disabled learners as they transition into employment to ensure that they are able to provide the specialist careers advice required.
“There needs to be more done with transitioning in employment.”
“I think it’s really necessary to build that bridge between what’s happening with the tertiary provider and what’s happening in the workplace.”
“ …the same assistive tech that you use to learn should be used in the workplace.”
- Disability Services and Trades Staff, Tertiary Institution.