The Career Pathways Transition to Employment
Project
Development, Outcomes and Future Directions.
Claire Gleeson, Kieran Lewis, and Dr Clodagh Nolan,
Career Pathways Project / Unilink Occupational Therapy Service.
Disability Service, Trinity College Dublin.
Career Pathways
https://www.tcd.ie/disability/career/Pathways/
•
Career Pathways is a recovery-orientated and occupationfocused approach to enabling students with disabilities to
manage the transition from college to employment.
•
Partnership between Disability Service (Declan Treanor), Unilink
Occupational Therapy Service, and Careers Advisory Service
(Eileen Daly and Sean Gannon within TCD, and external project
officers (Laura Louise Condell and Amie Hynes-Fitzpatrick).
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Background
• More and more students with disabilities are accessing and succeeding
in higher education (AHEAD, 2015).
• Transition from higher education into employment can be fraught with
challenges for these students (Fichten et al, 2012).
• Employment levels of individuals with disabilities have remained
significantly lower than their non-disabled peers (ESRI, 2010).
• The National Disability Authority (2014) maintains that disabled people
are two and a half times less likely to be in work than non-disabled
people.
• Those most excluded from the labour market are often those with
mental health difficulties or intellectual impairments (World Health
Organisation, 2011).
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Context
College as an Opportunity
• 1,400 students registered with the Disability Service in TCD alone which
is 9% of the student population (TCD Disability Service, 2015).
• College is the one time where their work, leisure, social networks and
professional supports are located within the one inter-connected
context (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011).
• Unilink Occupational Therapy Service embedded within Disability
Service for past 11 years.
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Research Findings / Student Needs
Key Themes that Emerged (Nolan and Gleeson, in press)
• Building personal strategies
• Enabling and building your
Career
• Disclosure & Reasonable
Accommodations
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
• Fit
• Advice for students
& transition to work
• Enabling the Work
Environment
Development of the Career Pathways Approach
• Conduct Research with students and graduates to identify needs and
formulate idea (Nolan & Gleeson, in press).
• Bring Stakeholders together: Collaboration between Disability Service &
Careers Service within TCD, and other HEIs.
• Apply for Funding: €181,000 granted from the Genio Trust.
• Set objectives over 2 year period in line with Disability Service / Unilink
Strategic Plan.
• Recruitment of staff (1 Career Adviser and 2 part-time OTs).
• Establish oversight committee (Clinical Director Unilink, Heads of Service in
Careers and Disability Services in TCD).
• Deliver!
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Objectives
1. Develop a clearly delineated individual process comprising three
stages, with access to individually tailored resources.
2. Develop an online system where students can track and log their
work related experiences and engagement with resources
available.
3. Develop a series of peer workshops and events, involving
graduates with disabilities to act as mentors to current students.
4. Connect students to employers through employment events.
5. Share model and resources within partner HEIs in Dublin area
and disseminate nationally within higher education.
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Developing the Approach: Theoretical Basis
1. Occupation-Focused and Occupation Based (Fisher 2013)
- Learning through occupation in the student journey.
2. Person-Environment Occupation Model (Law et al.,
1996). - Well suited to context-based model.
3. Recovery Orientation (Deegan, 1988; Anthony 1993).
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Outcomes
1. Develop a clearly delineated individual process
• 134 students / graduates with disabilities have availed of Career Pathways
over the past two years.
• Over 500 individual meetings have taken place between students and
Occupational Therapists / Careers Advisers / AT Officer.
• ‘The service has given me so much help, support and encouragement – I
have really grown in confidence through it.’
Outcomes
2. Develop an online system where students can track and log their work
related experiences
• 30+ separate resources adapted / developed for the ePortfolio
System, including worker profile and work self-management
programme, as well as career-focused resources.
Outcomes
2. Develop an online system where students can track and log their work
related experiences
• 74 students have been set up on the ePortfolio system thus far.
• Student owned and his / her resource for life.
• Schools / Services within TCD and externally now connecting.
Outcomes
3 & 4. Develop a series of peer workshops and events / Connect to
Employers
Monthly
Workshops
Annual
Bootcamp
Employer
Events
• 45 students have attended one or more of these events and 16 Employers have
connected with Career Pathways.
• ‘Through a series of workshops and one-to-one sessions, I've been able to work
on my CV and interview presentation, giving me the confidence that I need to
excel in the professional world.’
• ‘…. communicating with peers who are in similar situations, a sense of
acceptance and openness surrounding the boot camp.’
Outcomes
5. Share model and resources within partner HEIs in Dublin area and
disseminate nationally within higher education.
• 26 Disability and Careers Service staff
from four HEIs within the Dublin area
have attended training workshops.
• 52 staff from student services
nationally attended workshop
‘Diversity Matters’ on the 2nd March
2016
• Developed Resource Guide for HEIs launched on the 2nd March.
• Presented at national and international conferences.
• Journal Publications submitted nationally and in development
internationally.
Future Directions
• Funding extended to September 2016
• Integration of approach into service structures within
TCD.
• Disability Service Student Ambassador Programme
Thanks
• Genio Trust for funding the project.
• Confederation of Student Services of Ireland for
Contributing to the Diversity Matters Workshop
• Declan Treanor (Disability Service Director) and Sean
Gannon (Careers Advisory Service) for not only backing
the project, but actively developing and integrating it.
• Amie Hynes-Fitzpatrick and Laura Louise Condell who
developed resources, delivered at workshops and events,
and advised upon overall development.
References
• Association of Higher Education and Disability (2015). Numbers of Students with Disabilities Studying in
Higher Education in Ireland 2013/14. AHEAD Educational Press, Dublin.
• Anthony, W. A. (1993). Recovery from mental illness; the guiding vision of the mental health service
system in the 1900s. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 16, 11-23.
• Deegan, P.E. (1988). Recovery: The lived experience of rehabilitation. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal,
9, 4, 11-19.
• Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) (2010). Peer Review of the Economic and Social Research
Institute. http://www.esri.ie/pubs/Report_of_Peer_Review_Panel.pdf
• Fichten, C.S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., Ferraro, V., Landry, M.È., Fiset, D., et al. (2012). What
happens after graduation? Outcomes, employment, and recommendations of recent junior/community
college graduates with and without disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation, 34(11), 917-925.
• Fisher, A. (2013). Occupation-centred, occupation-based, occupation-focused: Same, same or different?
Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 20, 162–173
References
• Law, M., Cooper, B., Strong, S., Stewart, D., Rigby, P., & Letts, L. (1996). The Person-EnvironmentOccupation Model: A transactive approach to occupational performance. Canadian Journal of
Occupational Therapy. 63(1), 9-23.
• National Disability Authority, (2014). Downloaded on the 04.03.16 from http://nda.ie/Disabilityoverview/.
•
Nolan, C., & Gleeson, C.I. (In press). The Transition to Employment: The Perspectives of Students and
Graduates with disabilities. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research.
•
Royal College of Psychiatrists (2011). Mental health of students in higher education College Report
CR166. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists.
•
TCD Disability Service (2015). Disability Service Bi‐Annual Student Statistics – end of Michaelmas term
14‐15. Available at https://www.tcd.ie/disability/assets/doc/pdf/Annual-report-statistics/14-15/BiAnnual%20Stats%20end%20of%20Michaelmas%20term%202014-2015.pdf. Downloaded on 04.03.16.
•
World Health Organisation. (2011). World report on disability. Geneva, Switzerland: Author
Questions