The transition to working life plans. An inclusive training way for people with disabilities.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Although educational inclusion is now becoming a reality in the early stages of education in Spain, it remains diluted in the period of transition to working life. In this paper we analyse the adequacy of Transition to Work Plans (PTT), an ordinari educational programme and offered by local governments as a non-segregated training space for people with disabilities. The first aim of the study presented here is to identify the elements which make this programme suitable for people with disabilities, which leads on to the second aim, namely to propose improvement actions in relation to it. The first step in undertaking this analysis involved implementing a plan for evaluating social training programmes previously created by the author, whereby interviews were held with tutors, teachers and people with disabilities participating in these courses in the province of Girona, NE Spain. Following this, we proceeded to use a protocol for evaluating different documents related to the planning and development of PTTs (legislation, administrative documents, etc.). On the basis of this analysis it would appear that the philosophy and design behind PTTs implemented in ordinary working environments do respond to inclusive approaches (in their flexibility, methodological and evaluation aspects, etc.). Another important contribution of this study is documentation of both the beneficial factors of these programmes as identified by people with disabilities who have completed them and their experiences on them.