Background and Need for Career
Pathways
Aims
• Background and need for this study
• To explore the benefits of work
• Employment Data for individuals with
Disabilities
• To share the research which informed the
development of Career Pathways
• Give future Directions
Context
Increase in the number of
students with disabilities
entering college
Support at 3rd Level provided =
greater progression & retention
Educated Graduates seeking
employment
Difficulties making the transition
to employment
Benefits of work
• Employment and work is a reflection of our talents, skills, abilities &
interests.
• Work promotes:
– self-confidence,
– self-esteem,
– status & roles in the community
– economic well-being. (Pratt et al 2014;
Bruyere & Barrington, 2012))
• Work provides monetary rewards, social status, social contacts, a
means of securing and occupying time, activity and involvement
and a sense of personal achievement (Boardman, 2003)
• For those with mental health difficulties work is important in
promoting recovery (Boardman, Grove, Perkins and Shepherd,
2003)
What are the Barriers to
Employment?
• Benefits Trap (Pratt et al., 2014)
• Low expectations (Boardman et al., 2003;
Smith, 2003)
• Lack of Vocational Experience (AHEAD,
2008)
• Prejudice & Discrimination –related to
disclosure
• Lack of Education
• Health and Wellbeing
• Access- Physical, transport etc.
Key Facts on Work and
Disability
• WHO - 10% of the worlds population has a disability.
• USA - 21.1% of people with disabilities (US Department of
Labour, 2011)
• In Canada - Unemployment for people with disabilities is
26%
• In the EU - approx. 40 million people have a disability (Kim
& Williams, 2013)
• In Ireland, people with disabilities are two and a half times
less likely to be in work than non-disabled people‟ (NDA
2014)
• AAGCAS- Seen  in graduates with MH difficulties- 678%
increase over 8 year period. (AGCAS, 2013).
Irish Context
• Leonardo Project-'Univers’ Emploi’- need to support transition to
employment for graduates with disabilities.
• AHEAD- 70% of graduate sample were employed. 59% in full-time
employment whilst 18% were part-time.
• 80% of those ‘seeking employment’ do not always disclose their
disability when applying for jobs.
• Most common reason for working part-time was that graduates
wanted to but were unable to find a full-time job.
• Only 23% of the respondents had participated in any form of
specific job-preparation training.
• Work experiences essential in influencing the employment
prospects of graduates with disabilities.
Question?
• What are the need of students and graduates in their
transition to employment?
Research Questions
Overall Question: What are the issues for students
with disabilities as they prepare for transitioning to
employment?
– What are the work related experiences of a
cohort of graduates with disabilities who were
supported by the Disability Service in their
transition to employment?
– What are the perceptions of senior year
university students with disabilities in relation to
preparing for employment?
Themes
Graduates
• Building personal
strategies
• Disclosure & RAs
• Fit
• Advice for Students &
transition to work
Under/Post Graduates
• Enabling and Building
your career
• Fit
• Disclosure
• Future Advice and
college support
• Enabling the work
environment
Building Personal
Strategies; Enabling &
Building Your Career
Build your CV: ‘all of the jobs I’ve gotten are jobs that
I…I’ve gotten them on the basis of the stuff that’s on my
CV… than I have on the qualifications’
Join Societies: ‘I would definitely say that like, from a
college point of view, like try and get yourself into the
societies, I found like, up until last year, like this year I’ve
enjoyed it the most, and I’ve definitely grown like, like
confidence wise’
FIT
Not an Equal World ‘but like it’s not
equal and it’s not going to be equal
today or tomorrow and as disabled
people and disabled graduates, we
need to accept that too and you need
to make your choices about what is
more important to you, do you know
what I mean, like if I really want
something like education-wise now or
in a job or whatever I know I’m going to
have to give more time to it and that’s
kind of a choice that I make’.
Rule out the jobs that will not work S6
‘ you must tailor everything that you
do,…what you know you can do’
Disclosure & Reasonable
Accommodations
Disclosure and Mental Health
‘Yeah it has, I just haven’t disclosed anything, I don’t
really. I wouldn’t, because of the nature of what I’ve
to deal with, it’s not as apparent, you know, I don’t
have an outwardly visible physical disability or
something like that so they would not know, but I
wouldn’t be averse to disclosing eventually but just
not before getting a job for certain’
‘Yes, yes that is actually a really big thing for me of
course, because it’s mental health and there’s a
stigma, I know there’s a stigma around every
disability and I’m not saying there’s more so, but I
know people can fear other disabilities but with this
kind of thing, people really just freak out.’
Advice for Students and
Colleges in Transitioning to
Work
Advice for students
‘Ohh, God, just to link in with Services…Very important…it’s very
important, it keeps you grounded, it keeps you, it helps’
• Advice on Disclosure
• Set the standard
• Mentor for your Disability
• Research your job
• Manage the social environment
• Format for the Sessions
• Use GradLink
Advice for student: ‘you know, I think the student with the disability
nearly needs to be aware of where they can get the supports’
Advice on Disclosure: ‘this is what, like it is something I’ve got over,
it’s something that will probably happen to me again, but at the same
time, I would tell people to wisely consider who they are disclosing
to, like it’s different disclosing to your boss, or to whoever’s in charge
of you, because there is that confidential, confidentiality there’
‘umm, that’s the first part. The second one is, umm, legally, it’s
probably a good idea, because if there’s an insurance thing or
something comes up down the line, it’s better to have said it at the
beginning ‘
‘than 6 months in, umm, and also, I mean, you should never really
feel that it’s something you have to hide away or feel embarrassed
about or feel ashamed about’
Enabling the Work
Environment
Educating the employersS5: ‘and
the other thing I recommend I
suppose is just making sure that
the managers know that you have
ahh, AS, because there’s a few
cases where you’re not picking up
on any emotional context’
Well times breaks‘, for a person
starting a new job I also think its
quite important that they look at
the whole year and how its going
for them and to plan their holidays’
Making sense
What does all this mean?
• Disclosure
• Mental health difficulties and fear of stigma and discrimination. Work
experience and Internships
• Need to find new ways to support students with disabilities as they
transition into the work world
• Mentors
Recommendations
• Do not assume that just because they have a degree that do not need
support
• Build work capacities of students with disabilities e.g. Provide them with
opportunities to develop work skills and their CV’s
• Need to develop ways to support students with disabilities prior to their
transition to work
• Need to continue with the support for at least one year post graduation to
ensure smooth transition into the work environment
What did we do
next?
The Next Steps
• Development of a support service in line
with Phase 3- DS Strategic Plan and Unilink
objectives
• Collaboration with DS & Careers Service
• Application for funding- Genio
• Development of a Stakeholders Group
• Development of objectives over 2 year period
• Further development of the model and pilot of the Career
Pathways model
• Collaboration with other HEIs; UCD, DIT, DCU & Marino
Institute of Education.
• Promotion of Career Pathways
• Linking with employers and Employment AgenciesWAM/Employability/Specialisterne
• 31 students engaged in the pilot phase and further
refinement of the model
Thank You for Listening
Any Questions?