Supporting individuals in Employment / Education and ensuring effective Community Engagement
The experience of individuals, and extensive research, demonstrates the incredibly positive impact that being in paid work can have on individuals and their families. It can: help increase self-confidence; enable people to be more independent; support the development of new skills; and help integrate and/or re-integrate people into society.
Yet, for People of Determination and those facing other challenges, the very process of getting into work can be a barrier. Our programmes help develop effective solutions for cohorts that might include: Learning and/ or Physical Disability; individuals with mental health support needs; ex-offenders; drug/alcohol users.
Employee Support
Every individual is unique. They come with personal experiences, skills, talents and areas of experience. That is why our first step is usually to undertake a “vocational profile” and “personality test” which enables us to look at key strengths and weaknesses in a range of areas including:
- Numeracy: how comfortable the individual is with numbers and data
- Literacy: how good the individual is their written language and general comprehension
- IT: how developed the individuals skills are
- Interaction: what are the individuals areas of strength in terms of human interaction
This helps us really understand the strengths and weaknesses of the individual which is the first step towards helping to place them in an appropriate work environment.
Employer Support
In order for an employer to successfully integrate individuals with additional needs into their work-force they often need support, at least at the outset. They will have a number of questions and concerns such as worry about the abilities of the individuals and the potential negative impact they may have on productivity. Our role is to challenge some of the mis-conceptions and help overcome barriers.
Support varies but can include:
- Information Events to which employers are invited to meet people with support needs who have successfully been integrated into the workforce
- Seminars delivered at company premises that include presentations and videos on topics such as Mental Health, Autism Awareness and integrating ex-offenders
- Visits to other companies that are running successful employment programmes
We set up an Employer’s Forum that meets every 2 months and will include a range of organisations that are employing people of determination so that attendees can hear from a range of speakers as well as networking and learning with and from each other.
Matching Process
Once an employer has agreed to engage with our programme, we then help match them with suitable employees, sometimes called “interns”. Trained staff – known as Job Coaches – will work with each employer to find out more about the roles that are available. They then use a practice called “Training in Systematic Instruction” (TSI) that is widely used in the UK and other parts of the world.
This helps break roles down into specific tasks and usually includes written and visual instructions (including photos etc) that enable the interns to understand the various stages involved. This allows the intern to become adept at their role, step by step, and build confidence along the way until they are confident doing the job independently.
The Job Coach supports both the intern and the immediate employer-based team and provides a very effective way of recruiting, inducting and supporting people from the outset.
Costs
The key costs are: contributing to the salary of the Job Coach and support programme; paying the interns a salary, at least on a probationary level.
