Skill development in an employment-training program for adolescents with disabilities

Abstract

Youth valued involvement in the workforce and perceived that through their participation they developed important life skills.

An ecological approach to understanding barriers to employment for youth with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers: views of youth, employers, and job counselors

“…Focusing on youth is important because it is particularly challenging to find work in our current economy, especially for those who have little training and experience [14,15]. Further, employers are increasingly emphasizing soft skills, an area that many young workers are deficient in [5]. Youth who are looking for entry-level employment often have few hard skills and formal training.…”

“…Consistent evidence shows that people with disabilities are under-represented in the workforce despite their willingness and ability to work [2,3]. Having a disability is a key barrier to obtaining paid employment [4][5][6][7] due to a wide variety of factors such as stigma and discrimination [8,9], inadequate transportation and support, low self-esteem, inaccessible jobs and non-accommodating environments [8][9][10]. As a result of the challenges in finding employment, people with disabilities are consistently found either unemployed or working in low paying and low status jobs [6,11,12].…”

“…Their perceptions are important because knowledge and attitudes toward people with disabilities play an essential role in whether they are hired and how they are treated in the workplace [5,22]. Research shows that employers who have experience working with people with disabilities tend to have more positive attitudes toward them and are more likely to hire a person with a disability [23,24].…”

“…Youth who are looking for entry-level employment often have few hard skills and formal training. Thus, employers often rely more on social skills, which arguably may be a disadvantage for youth with disabilities [5,14]. Barriers for entry-level employment for typically developing youth include lack of available jobs, lack of job readiness and age discrimination (where employers would prefer someone older with more experience) [5,14,15].…”

“…Having access to paid employment is a right of citizenship, a social determinant of health and a critical mechanism to improving social inclusion for people with disabilities [5,19,20]. Those who continually lack opportunities to be included in the workforce, especially youth with disabilities, are at a significant disadvantage and prone to poverty and social isolation [11,21].…”