Social and labour inclusion of people with intellectual disability through supported employment programs.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, supported employment is one of the most promising strategies in order to achieve the labour inclusion of people with disabilities. This article summarises a research project that includes the implementation and evaluation of a Training Program which is aimed at the job placement of young people with intellectual disability developed in a university context. The text describes the main characteristics of the Program, that it is dedicated to prepare 16 intellectually disabled young to occupy labour positions as secretary’s office and office boy. Due to the fact that the training is done in a uni‐ versity environment, the program allows the students to use the premises and the university services to do both the curricular activities and the leisure activities. The main content of the article shows the most relevant achievements of the experience. The results were collected through a systematic evalua‐ tion process based in questionnaires applied to the young participants in the Program, to their families and to teachers, in interviews answered by the university students that collaborate in the Program and in the analysis of the diaries of experiences of the disabled young participating in the Program. Besides the increase of their labour expectations and the improvement of their self-esteem as a consequence of their participation in the program, it can be showed how the development of the Program inside of the university gives additional advantages to the students and also to the university community. It is important to highlight that along the text it is expressed that the delivery of personal and career guidance in every stage of the process is one of the keys to the success of this kind of experiences.