Empowering young people with disability: creating pathways to employment

Many young people with disability often struggle to find work opportunities due to discrimination and other barriers. Some are limited to jobs in segregated environments or relegated to jobs others don’t want to do.

BSL’s Inclusive Pathways to Employment (IPE) aims to change this by helping young people with disability transition from education to meaningful jobs.

BSL collaborates with four employment services providers, who deliver the government-funded youth employment program ‘Transition to Work.’ These are Workskil in Adelaide, Workways in Gippsland, YES Youth Employment Service in Penrith, and your town in Logan. Together, we’re investigating how mainstream youth employment services can better support young people with disability. Our goal is to help young people pursue their interests and goals and included socially and economically.

Ronny, Eddie, Sam, Nik, and Jason faced uncertainty as they approached year 12 graduation. Despite literacy and numeracy challenges, they finished school with determination. Candy, their IPE Coordinator in Queensland, supported them by introducing various career options and helping them choose a 12-week customer service course, which they would graduate from with a Certificate II in Retail.

Initially, there were concerns from their trainers about supporting these young people with literacy and numeracy issues. However, Candy advocated for their right to education and worked closely with the trainers to provide things like extra writing support and breaking down tasks into smaller parts.

As the young people progressed, each participant was helped to identify their strengths and choose their pathways to employment. After completing the program, the young people gained work skills and confidence outside of schoolwork. They celebrated their graduation with Candy and their trainers.

Eddie is optimistic about finding a job with his newfound skills: 

I wanted to do the retail course so I have that certificate on my resume that shows I know how to handle some situations. My favourite part about the course was socialising and finding new friends.

Recently, people from all four IPE sites met in Brisbane to share their experiences and ideas for supporting the IPE pilot in future. They aim to learn from each other and improve the program even further.

Find out more: https://nced.org.au/ipe/