Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

IMPROVING THE EMPLOYABILITY OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TRAINING

During the months of March, April and May, Centro San Viator (SPAIN), one partner in GIVE project, has provided technical training for 12 young people with intellectual disabilities in the Gardening sector. This training has been accompanied by internships in companies in the sector that allowed 4 people to have been hired at the end of the internship.
This program is part of the initiative that Centro San Viator is developing to implement the results that we have obtained throughout the entire project.
We cannot forget that in the last 25 years, important changes have been taking place in the context of training for young people with intellectual disabilities, data that was analyzed in the early phases of GIVE. Among the main results we obtained are:

NEW SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT: facilitated by the policy of inclusive education within the educationalnframework, which has resulted in expanded expectations of people with disabilities and their families, and consequently, increased demands on public administrations in various countries.

NEW SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT: the living conditions of the population with disabilities and their families are very different from those that characterized our society more than twenty-five years ago. Much lower income levels made it necessary to articulate economic measures that would help families with children with disabilities. Today, fortunately, the situation has improved substantially and, consequently, the priorities of people with disabilities and their families have also improved. It is beginning to claim an improvement in the quality of life and an expansion of the offer of programs and services.

NEW SOCIAL-HEALTH CONTEXT: The increase in life expectancy of the general population obviously includes the group of people with disabilities, and entails a change of situation at all levels. People with intellectual disabilities have a better quality of life and the health care they receive have allowed them to have a much more normalized life which, of course, includes social and labor integration.

NEW THEORETICAL CONTEXTS: with a visibility of disability, with a commitment to improving services through greater participation of people, with greater recognition of rights, with the horizon of quality of life, …
From here Centro San Viator in collaboration with our partners in GIVE, wants to frame our performance as one more element, within multiple factors to work on, in achieving a better quality of life for young people with disabilities intellectual.

We are a VET center, with different training areas, adapted to the context of the company and with a clear objective: to promote the employability of all people, especially those who come from vulnerable groups.
From this context we want to design comprehensive training itineraries that take into account all the areas involved in improving job opportunities for people with disabilities.
For that reason, we have carried out specific technical training through Professional certificates that allow access to it to anyone, regardless of their accredited academic level.
But this training is not enough if it is not accompanied by a job orientation and activation process that runs parallel to the intermediation that centro San Viator carries out with companies in the sector. This has been one of the most important results that we have obtained after analyzing the reality of the companies that we carry out with GI-Group within the framework of GIVE.
In addition, we have also taken the opportunity to carry out a campaign to raise awareness of the labor reality of this group, in order to inform companies of the
multiple benefits of having people with disabilities in organizations.
Challenges such as the adaptation of the Professional Certificates for this group or Dual System, must be acquired by the European Vocational Training centers as a formula for innovation and a mechanism that favors social and labor inclusion.

The keys of this project would be the following:

 Aimed at people with mild intellectual disabilities (around 33% disability) without a Secondary Education Graduate qualification.

 The purpose is to provide young people with a level 1 professional certificate that allows them to:
– Access the ordinary labor market in better conditions with a minimum degree.
– Continue training at higher levels of professional certification.

 Vocational training must be configured as a training model that combines theoretical teaching with practical learning in a company environment to help young people with disabilities. Also, it must serve to break the prejudices that exist regarding the talent of these people.

VET can encourage many young people with disabilities to continue their education and thus increase their chances of finding a job. At the same time, it
can be the solution for many companies to hire people with disabilities and break those prejudices by working with them, as has been reflected throughout
the entire GIVE project.

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