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THE ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY INITIATIVES INNOVATIONS N°3 EMPLOYMENT-HORIZON Employers, Employment and People with Disabilities
THE ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY INITIATIVESINNOVATIONS N°3
EMPLOYMENT-HORIZON
Employers, Employment and People with Disabilities
What is the European Social Fund?
The European Social Fund (ESF) invests in people. Its purpose is toimprove the prospects of those who face the greatest obstacles in finding,keeping or regaining work. In this way the ESF enables millions of peoplethroughout the European Union to play a fuller role in society and thusimprove their quality of life.
The ESF provides European Union funding on a major scale for programmeswhich develop or regenerate people’s employability. This task centres onproviding citizens with the right work skills as well as developing theirsocial interaction skills, thereby improving their self-confidence andadaptability in the job marketplace.The ESF channels its support into strategic long-term programmes whichhelp regions across Europe, particularly those lagging behind, to upgradeand modernise workforce skills and to stimulate entrepreneurial initiative.This encourages domestic and foreign investment into the regions, helpingthem to foster greater economic competitiveness and prosperity.The ESF is the main tool through which the European Union translates itsemployment policy aims into action. In the six years 1994-1999 the ESF,which operates in all Member States, will have made available ECU 47billion, accounting for almost ten per cent of the European Union’s totalbudget. The ESF also helps unlock funding at national level, through theuse of a joint-funding principle which permits ESF support to be madeavailable only for active measures already being undertaken by MemberStates to increase people’s employment prospects.The ESF’s aims are both preventive and remedial. To help prevent futurelong-term unemployment, the ESF focuses its support on programmes whichprepare young people better for working life, which help those inemployment adapt or develop their skills to meet the challenges of changein the workplace, or which intervene early to help those losing their jobswho may be at risk of long-term unemployment to regain work quickly. Forthose who have reached the stage of long-term unemployment, the ESFconcentrates on supporting co-ordinated programmes which provide astep-by-step path for people back into work. Underlying all the ESF’s workis the principle of ensuring equal access to employment for men and women,the disabled, and disadvantaged minorities at risk of social exclusion.Programmes are planned by Member States together with the EuropeanCommission and then implemented through a wide range of providerorganisations both in the public and the private sectors. Theseorganisations include national, regional and local authorities, educationaland training institutions, voluntary organisations, trade unions and workscouncils, industry and professional associations, and individualcompanies. The ESF helps fund a broad range of active schemes andprojects, which include vocational training; work experience and placementschemes; training of teachers, trainers and public officials; employmentcounselling and job search assistance; employment aids and childcarefacilities; schemes for developing or improving in-company training systemsand structures; and research projects which anticipate and help plan foreconomies’ future workforce needs.The ESF acts as a catalyst for new approaches to projects, harnessing andbringing to bear the combined resources of all involved. It fosterspartnerships at many different levels and encourages the Europe-widetransfer of knowledge, sharing of ideas and best practice, ensuring thatthe most effective new solutions are incorporated into mainstream policies.
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FOREWORDS
I am delighted to welcome this third edition of the new series of European Social Fund publications called Innovations. The first set of publications in this series was the result of the combined efforts of the European Commission and the Member States in identifying and illustrating the best practices from projects financed in the first round of the EMPLOYMENT and ADAPT Initiatives. It is intended that these should inspire promoters from the second round of projects who are now beginning their work, as well as promoters in various other programmes.
This publication focuses on the difficulties faced by people with disabilities when entering the open labour market. It is recognised that the role of employers is crucial and consequently a dialogue with employers on the various hurdles and how they can be overcome, is an essential process.
Although there have been important changes in European and national disability policies, employees with disabilities still face many challenges when dealing with the demands of the labour market. In endorsing the Employment Guidelines at the Special Jobs Summit in Luxembourg, the European Council made a commitment to focus on the problems that people with disabilities often encounter in working life. In addition, the European Council has accepted the idea of a fresh start for adults who have been unemployed up to a period of 12 months, and to promote preventive and employability measures to bring the long-term unemployed back into work. As people with disabilities very often feature among the long-term unemployed, it is hoped that this will lead the way to improving the employment situation of disabled people.
It is important to recognise that all citizens of the European Union have a contribution to make to society and that employment should be available to everyone. It is evident that some special measures are needed to support both the employer and the employee with a disability in order to achieve equal access into employment for this target group. Mainstream provision should be developed further to help people with disabilities on their pathway from training to employment.
I would like to extend my personal thanks to all the projects and Member States which participated in this joint effort and to congratulate the authorities in Ireland for their contribution to this publication. I hope that the publication will stimulate further dialogue between employers, employees and key actors in order to create better employment opportunities for people with disabilities and to develop new systems which will encourage employers to enter into a new social commitment towards this target group.
Pádraig FLYNN
European Commissioner with responsibility for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs
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Horizon has played an important role in promoting innovative actions for the vocational advancement of persons with a disability. This action is complementary to the need to combat the unacceptably high levels of unemployment which currently exist amongst people with disabilities. To that end, I have been actively promoting the mainstreaming of employment measures for persons with a disability. I am happy to say that my Department is currently playing an important role in the development of structures which will facilitate the integration of policy responsibility for persons with a disability into mainstream training and employment policy.
The involvement of employers in job creation is well recognised in Ireland. Employers play a key role in the partnership arrangements which have provided a central plank in the economic and social advancement of this successful process. I am glad to see, therefore, that an Irish agency, NRB, has played an acknowledged lead role in the thematic work leading up to this publication. That so many projects, operating across the Member States, have contributed to the development of the work is a good example of transnational partnership at work and this, of course, is a key element of the Community Initiatives.
I hope that this publication provides the basis for further involvement of employers in the development of employment policy for people with disabilities throughout the European Union.
Mary Harney TDTánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment
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CONTENTS
BACKGROUND
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ON THE LABOUR MARKET
EMPLOYERS’ CONCERNS
“How will it affect my business?” “Who else employs people with disabilities?” “How could I provide a suitable job?“ “Will it be possible to find someone who fills the requirements?“ “How can I get an idea of the potential of the candidate?” “But how will co-workers react?” “Won’t practical and personal problems interfere?” “Can I discuss performance and behaviour if necessary?” “And what if it goes wrong?”
“Is there any financial or other assistance available?” “Can we do business?”
MEDIATION
RAISING AWARENESS SUMMARY
MEMBERS OF THE THEMATIC WORK GROUP
HORIZON IN BRIEF
ADDRESSES OF ESF MISSIONS AND HORIZON NATIONAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES
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THE BACKGROUND
The EMPLOYMENT Community Initiative operates until the end of 2000 and targets groups of people who face special difficulties in the labour market. It has four inter-related strands: NOW for equality of opportunities between women and men; HORIZON for people with disabilities; INTEGRA for socially excluded people; and YOUTHSTART for young people. A first call for project proposals was launched in 1995 and, as a result, 2380 EMPLOYMENT projects were selected throughout the European Union. In December 1996, the European Commission and the Member States decided to capitalise on the experience of some of these EMPLOYMENT projects with a view to helping promoters who would be selected in the second call for project proposals in 1997, and to mainstream the best practices. Five themes were chosen, and a Work Group of between 12 and 20 projects was established on each of them. In each Group, one Member State agreed to lead and co-ordinate the joint work. The themes are:
1. NOW: business creation by women in future growth sectors, led by Italy.
2. HORIZON: the role of employers in providing employment for people withdisabilities, led by Ireland.
3. INTEGRA: specific routes to education, training and work for the most vulnerable groups, led by Sweden.
4. YOUTHSTART: the comprehensive pathway approach, led by UK Great Britain.
5. TRANSVERSAL: integrated local partnership approaches, led by UK Northern Ireland.
Ireland was the lead Member State for the second of these work groups and the National Rehabilitation Board, the National Support Structure for the EMPLOYMENT HORIZON in Ireland, organised and hosted meetings of the group, and produced working documents and the final report. A total of 17 projects drawn from all EU Member States took part in the group, and some employer and trade union representatives also participated. The projects and the members of the work group are listed at the end of this publication.All Horizon projects work transnationally and develop their activities in partnership with projects from other Member States. This transnational dimension has contributed to the exploration of innovative solutions to problems facing people with disabilities and enables the projects to operate in the wider context of the European labour market.The content of this publication is largely based on the experience of the projects. This means that it reflects some of the barriers encountered by people with disabilities in their search for employment and the solutions found by various training, guidance and mediation or social welfare agencies. This represents only one side of the equation and it is intended that this document should be used as a basis for future discussions with employers and trade unions during the second round of thematic work on the theme The Role of Employers vis-à-vis People with Disabilities. The discussions in the second round of thematic work will focus
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on what could or should be done to promote opportunities for disabled people in the open labour market so that employers can define for themselves the role they should play in providing employment for people with disabilities.Recognition that employers are key actors in changing the situation led to a decision to continue the work on this theme. It was felt that unless employers entered into a dialogue about their real or perceived difficulties and became actively involved in providing or developing work experience opportunities or permanent jobs, there would be little chance that the situation of people with disabilities throughout the European Union would improve. It is hoped that this document might be a step towards the creation of such dialogue and involvement. Future work on this theme should also build on the experiences and discussions initiated during the conference “Pathways to Integration and Disabled Persons” which was organised by the Luxembourg authorities in co-operation with the Commission, in October 1997.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN THE LABOUR MARKET
The labour market in the European Union has undergone remarkable changes in this decade and policies for the integration of people with disabilities into mainstream employment have also changed significantly in recent years. When the expectations for economic growth are positive there are possibilities for more flexible employment strategies, and employers can be more open to the idea of employing disabled employees. However, an analysis of the employment situation of people with disabilities shows that ‘welfare to work’ is a more complicated issue for people with disabilities than for other special target groups and much remains to be done. This was also reflected in the Commission’s report on Employment in Europe 19971.
It is estimated that there are approximately 40 million people with disabilities in the Union and of these 43% to 54% are of working age. This means that around 19 million people of working age have a disability.
Eurostat conducted a European Household Panel survey in 1994 and this analysis represents the first comprehensive source of statistics on the employment and income situation of people with disabilities across the Union. In this survey, participants of working age were asked if they were hampered in carrying out their daily activities by any chronic physical or mental problem. Almost a fifth of the respondents (covering 60,000 households) indicated that they were either severely hampered or hampered to some extent.
This research supports the fact that people with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people, and are often found among the long-term unemployed.
The survey also reveals that unemployment rates are higher for disabled women than for disabled men, and that the employment rate of people with disabilities between 50 and 64 years of age is considerably lower than that of the younger age groups.
1 see Part II, Section 2, for detailed information on the employment situation of people with disabilities in Europe.
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There is a lot of evidence that people with disabilities are still in a relatively weak position in the competition for jobs. The structural mismatch between the skills people have and the skills demanded by the labour market is one of the key problems of this target group. The challenge facing people with disabilities is compounded by the fact that training has formerly been concentrated in areas which are now rapidly vanishing. The disappearance of manual, routine and repetitive work and the decline in jobs in agriculture and traditional industries are having an impact on the employment of people with various types of disability. The above-mentioned survey confirms that some groups of people with disabilities, like people with learning difficulties, often work in manual and semi-skilled jobs. Similarly, training and employment for people with sensorial disabilities has mostly concentrated in what are now declining areas of employment.
The current shift from the manufacturing to the service sector, the demand for more highly skilled workers and the arrival of new technologies have serious implications for the employment opportunities of some groups of people with disabilities. All this emphasises the need for flexible working hours and the re-organisation both of the workplace and the content of work. This will present an extra challenge but also an opportunity for people with disabilities, to find and hold down a job. Developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can offer people with disabilities the means to overcome barriers by using new opportunities to access the future labour market. For example, new technologies tele-working and computer-aided work provide more flexible working conditions which can provide new opportunities for people with disabilities who have the right skills.
People with disabilities represent a heterogeneous group of employeesThere is a wide spectrum of disabilities ranging from physical or sensorial disabilities to learning difficulties and mental health problems. Definitions of disability vary in different Member States as well and this makes the comparison of national policies complicated. While different disabilities offer different possibilities for integration into work, they may also require tailor-made approaches to overcome specific hurdles. Often disability means a functional incapacity but sometimes a person’s disability does not affect their ability to perform a certain job. It is therefore important to assess carefully the requirements of a job and to compare them with the skills and capacity of the person with special needs. There are vast differences between the needs and circumstances of young people with disabilities trying to enter the labour market with little or no work experience and mature adults who have acquired a disability later in their careers, due to an accident or illness. Another important aspect to bear in mind is that women with disabilities often encounter a double disadvantage in the labour market.
Employers and social commitmentOrganisations employing people with disabilities may be large or small, and they may operate in the public or private sector or in widely different economic sectors. Employers’ attitudes towards social commitment differ depending on their general strategies, as well as their experiences and resources. However, Total Quality and quality management are the guiding principles for many employers today. Total Quality is a new attitude to work where improvements, including social commitment towards the staff are given priority. Through respect and consideration for the individual, flexibility and latitude and an
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innovative interaction with employees and local authorities, employers can create a dignified position in society for groups at risk. This includes creating a working life for disabled citizens and for others who, for various reasons, also risk losing their place in the labour market.
A lot of employers realise that the costs of not employing people with disabilities are also high. Income maintenance for disabled people is now the third largest item of social protection expenditure in the European Union, after old-age pensions and health care, but ahead of unemployment benefits. The costs of this type of social protection have to be borne by society, which means by those who pay social contributions. Employers are the largest contributors, and this underlines why their social commitment is so important and why prevention of disability and disability management have become elements of a modern human resources policy.
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EMPLOYERS’ CONCERNSEmployers often have doubts when they are asked to consider employing someone with a disability. This publication shows how HORIZON projects have helped employers to realise the advantages of recruiting people with disabilities. Successful projects do this by dealing with their concerns. The eleven most frequently articulated concerns can all be answered:
“How will it affect my business?”Employers would be more enthusiastic about employing people with disabilities if they knew the truth of positive experience throughout Europe, and if, in many countries, they knew of the legislation which exists to protect them against possible loss of productivity.
“Who else employs people with disabilities?”Success stories have to go around. A positive experience in employing a person with disabilities heard directly from another employer can be a convincing argument. When this expands to a network, it is an even better way. Networks can either be formal, or informal, and can include close collaboration with the authorities.
“How could I provide a suitable job?“An employer’s first reaction might be that there were no jobs in the company which could be taken up by people with disabilities. Through job canvassing, employers can be assisted to identify opportunities.
“Will it be possible to find someone who fills the requirements?“An effective matching of the employer’s needs and the person’s abilities and qualifications is the key to success when someone with a disability is looking for work.
“How can I get an idea of the potential of the candidate?”In work experience placements, people with disabilities get a chance to demonstrate their capacities and to adapt to the job.
“But how will co-workers react?”Shop-floor objections are a big concern, but information and preparation can help and colleagues can also provide a lot of support.
“Won’t practical and personal problems interfere?”A person with disabilities can face many problems outside work: transport; housing; financial problems; mental health problems … but a good support service or person can assist in these.
“Can I discuss performance and behaviour if necessary?”Employers require quality in their work in order to be successful in the competitive market and for that reason they want to be sure that the employees’ performance can be assessed and discussed. This refers equally to all employees, regardless their possible disability.
“And what if it goes wrong?”
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Good support services are crucial and also have to continue after a job has been secured, in case problems arise.
“Is there financial or other assistance available?”In most of the Member States of the European Union, different kinds of legal incentives exist to promote the employment of people with disabilities. These vary from wage subsidies, to quota systems toor grants for the adaptation of the workplace.
“Can we do business?”Professionalism in approaching and dealing with the employer is an
important factor. You have to present yourself as representing a reliable, highly professional
service. People with disabilities have to be encouraged to think competitively and to sell/ and promote their skills. Employment should be seen as professa real, professional and economic occupation, which does not depend on ‘charity’.
HORIZON projects have found possible responses to each of these 11 concerns. These form the basis for separate sections in this publication, each of which is illustrated by practical examples of how projects have worked alongside employers to increase job opportunities for people with disabilities.
These projects have also demonstrated that a new expertise or a new job profile is emerging which is being referred to as mediation. The mediation function requires a well-developed understanding of the priorities of industry and commerce and knowledge of the potential of job seekers with disabilities. Because of the future relevance of this new role or service, a separate chapter explains the concept in more detail.
Another important message from HORIZON projects is that there is still a lot to be done to ensure that employers and the general public understand the contribution that people with disabilities can make in the workplace. So, a separate chapter is devoted to the topic of raising awareness and outlines some of the successes which projects have had in this respect.
“How will it affect my business?”
One of the reasons why employers hesitate to offer a job to a person with disabilities can be a concern about the unknown. In a situation where an employer is unfamiliar with disability, let alone disabled employees, a lot of questions can arise. DWill it be necessary to make major adapt,ations to the workplace? Will co-workers accept a colleague with disabilities,? Can an
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employee with disabilities work in a “normal” working environment,‘normal’ working environment? .
Productivity is a big concern for every employer. However, when an employer is willing to change the way the work is organised, measures can be taken to limit diminished productivity which may result from the employment of people with disabilities. The Duet project gives an example of this.
How to counteract loss of productivity DUET, founded by the Flemish project Workmate/Into work, is an enterprise working in school catering and chocolate making. People with disabilities represent the majority of the workforce and the project has developed several methods to limit any loss of productivity which might occur. First of all, dividing the employees into small functional working units of four or five people makes communication and co-operation easier and more manageable and also increases employee involvement in the process.Another method used is to divide the available work into part-time jobs, which limits the demands on the individual’s capacities. Instead of recruiting personnel in a traditional way, Duet invites its potential employees to work within the enterprise for a couple of days. The candidates come to understand what is feasible for them and where the problems are. As the employer, Duet has the chance to assess whether the job can be handled by the candidates and if they will fit into the firm.
Personal experience and knowledgeIf the employer knows a relative or friend who has a certain disability he/she is more likely to have a more open approach to an employee with a similar disability. And all employers can always find out more about disability for themselves by contacting organisations of people with disabilities, or services that work with and for them. For example, the Swedish project LIKA VILLKOR contacted a construction company to ask them if they wanted to have a disabled trainee. The Director told them that he was just about to recruit a kitchen-carpenter, and that if they could find one who was deaf, he was prepared to employ him. His father was deaf so he had some knowledge of the deaf community. In co-operation with the local job agency LIKA VILLKOR found a suitable candidate who had just taken his exam as a kitchen carpenter.
“Who else employs people with disabilities?”
NetworkingIt is often important for employers to get information directly from peers who have already employed people with disabilities. If a network of employers who employ people with disabilities is created, it makes it easier for job finders and mediators to identify a suitable work placement for a person with a disability. During the first contact, employers can be informed about the details which have to be considered when a member of staff has a disability and any questions which they have can be discussed.
Bringing employers together to exchange ideas rather than contacting them one by one can start a thinking process leading to the creation of job opportunities.
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Setting-up Conferences to encourage a dialogue for changeLIKA VILLKOR already has strong contacts with employers in the local labour market. With the aim of keeping employment for people with disabilities high on the agenda, the project set about organising frank group discussions with key employers. Conferences were organised which brought together around 40 employers from Sweden and abroad. The participants were mostly personnel directors working in banks, insurance companies and trade unions. The project found that these open-forum discussions often lead to more enlightened ideas filtering through from practice abroad and that the transnational element was a spur to action. One Swedish employer who had to re-think his position on disability and employment said: “We thought we were great on disability but the only thing we’ve got are elevators.”
The ACCEPT network, composed of partners from Northern Ireland, England, Spain, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, is continuously looking to expand its employer network to provide work placements for training and job opportunities. Once good contacts have been established with employers they become actively involved in mental health awareness events and project monitoring. This is how the partner project in Northern Ireland adapted the networking idea to the local context:
Networking - a way of creating a forum for employers and job seekers with disabilitiesIn Northern Ireland, there is an excellent employer network which has been developed over the last 20 years by the Industrial Therapy Organisation (ITO). ITO provides vocational training, placement and support services for people with mental health problems. With the introduction of its Horizon ACCEPT project, the number of employers needed to double. This increase had to happen quickly due to the relatively short duration of the project. After carrying out research on the type of employers who were taking on people with mental health problems, the project ran a campaign to attract the top 400 employers in Northern Ireland. The project adopted a very professional strategy to sell the idea to employers using economic arguments, combined with marketing and a public awareness programme.
ACCEPT has marketed itself well and has a good reputation in Northern Ireland. This persuaded a large electricity company to work out a stress management and mental health policy for their company, in collaboration with ACCEPT.
Informal networkingAt the local and regional level, many SMEs have accepted employees with disabilities because of the example of a neighbouring enterprise. CERCIFAF, the promoter of the Portuguese SILENOS project, operates in the relatively poor Minho region in the North of Portugal, where the economy is mainly based on the shoe and textile industry, mostly small (family) enterprises. CERCIFAF is aware of the fact that attitudes can only be changed if success stories are spread around. So, once or twice a year, they organise an informal meeting for all the employers in the region. Employers are offered a drink and get the opportunity to exchange experiences. “It is not enough to open doors, it is necessary to keep them open” is one of their maxims: it is clear that maintaining good contacts with employers is extremely important.
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Integration of authorities and local actorsOn a larger scale, several projects have shown that it is very useful and productive to establish relationships with official bodies like employers’ organisations, social security services and employment authorities.
The AQZ from Güstrow (D) collaborates closely with official bodies like the Employment Office and the Social Welfare Authority. The mediators trained by the project set up a profile of the needs and wishes of a candidate with disabilities on the one hand, and those of a potential employer on the other. Then they discuss with the Employment Office and the Social Welfare Authority the possibilities for the individual and the employer in relation to wage subsidies, (loss of) disability allowance, subsidies for adaptation of the workplace and compensation for loss of productivity. This approach means that the best solution can be found for both parties.
The project works in a transnational partnership with Remploy Ltd. in the UK and ASPANDEM in Spain. Working together the partners determined an extended process of integration into the open labour market, developing and testing new possibilities, and integrating former experiences, e.g. the detachment formula in the UKgb. The specific local situation leads to varying integration forms (detachment, part time work, integration companies). The main aim of Remploy Ltd. (a public enterprise which employs people with disabilities) is to train personnel in companies in the guidance and accompaniment of people with disabilities, and also to act as a mediating service. The AQZ takes as a starting point the growing number of SMEs in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.It aims to train external personnel in the integration of people with disabilities into the open labour market and works in close co-operation with the companies. ASPANDEM has worked on the professional profile of the ‘job coach’, with certification through the Chamber of Commerce.
Collaboration with the Ministries in the NetherlandsThe Ministries in the Netherlands have pursued a preferential policy for the employment of the partially-fit-for-work for several years. The Start Centraal Punt Ministeries (Start Ministries Centre, CPM) in the Netherlands was formed by Start Holding BV for the Home Affairs Ministry, in order to implement the Disabled Workers Employment Act (WAGW) in the central government sector. The CPM provides a full package of recruitment, selection and placement services, including applications for wage subsidies. Start also organised information meetings on aspects of WAGW ???Dutch disability law for various management levels in the civil service.
“How could I provide a suitable job?“
Employers often say that they are prepared to take on employees with disabilities in their enterprise but have no suitable work. Job canvassing or helping the employer to distinguish and combine suitable tasks for employees can be a solution in this case. A closer look at the different tasks of all
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employees in a company can sometimes reveal a mismatch between the tasks and the qualification levels of employees, in some cases employees may have taken on tasks they were not recruited to do. The result is a loss of time, money and energy. If the employer is willing to review the overall job structure in an enterprise, some tasks can be combined differently and this may create a job opportunity. This can lead to the human and financial resources of the enterprise being used in a more effective way. The Dutch HORIZON Job-Coaching project by START uses such a method. They make job canvassing an essential part of the integration of people with disabilities. This means that employers who might consider employing people with disabilities are helped by a job coach from the project to see if any activities within the enterprise can be restructured.
When CREATIF Alsace (F) is looking for job opportunities for clients with disabilities, what they call “prospection” (i.e. investigating the market, contacting enterprises and job search) is an important phase. They do it in collaboration with the National Employment Agency. The CREATIF Alsace service develops employment offers: the role of their mediator is to convince the enterprise to make some adaptations to an existing job offer, so that it can be taken by a person with disabilities.
Knowledge of the labour market and how companies work, and maybe even the particular sector is essential when advising employers on how to create new job descriptions in their companies. It’s also important to give clear professional advice on contract possibilities and available incentives, in order to make the creation of a job for a person with disabilities as attractive as possible to the employer.
“Will it be possible to find someone who fills the requirements?“
A person with the right skills to do the work and the right personality to fit into the team and the company image are key issues when an employer decides to employ someone. Employers not only require formal qualifications, but also social and personal skills like self-esteem, ability to cope, flexibility and team spirit.
A service which can really match potential candidates to the job on offer has proved to be successful in creating employment for people with disabilities. Listening to the needs of an employer and providing a realistic and precise profile of the candidate(s) are two sides of the same coin. Employers have financial constraints and it is not possible to count on their goodwill alone. At the same time, candidates with disabilities also have views about the type of job(s) they want and the qualities they can offer. Matching the right person to the right job is crucial and many HORIZON projects have shown that they can offer a high quality professional service which produces a satisfactory result for both parties.
Meeting the specific needs of employers The project manager of the Greek HORIZON project DISNET-STEP works predominantly with SMEs based in Larissa. Company managers are not always aware of what a person with disabilities can contribute to their company. The project promoter says that when she makes initial telephone calls and visits to
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companies, she always tries to identify their needs so that she can provide a trainee who can really respond to those needs. Each trainee is well prepared to show his/her real talents. In many cases this approach has lead to a permanent contract for the job seeker.
Many well-trained and qualified people with physical disabilities are looking for jobs, but they often face the problem of inaccessibility. Making the environment accessible might be the only step necessary to enable a skilled person to take on a job that really suits him/her. In many Member States, grants for adaptation of the workplace exist to facilitate this.
Physical disability need not be a barrier to job performance when the person's capabilities match the skills required for the jobOne of the services which the Spanish project CENDI/IGON offers is a mediation service between people with disabilities and employers. Once they have located a job offer, they select 5candidates who according to their knowledge meet the job profile. The candidates receive 60 hours of training in Job Finding Techniques in order to feel confident during the job interview. They are then sent to the employer who makes the choice. For example, out of six candidates sent to an insurance company where there was a vacancy for an Administrative Assistant, the employer chose a candidate with a degree in administrative work and practical experience in bookkeeping, whose physical disability did not cause any problems in undertaking the tasks involved.
The employers’ requirements should be noted and carefully analysed, as they are the ones who provide jobs. However, the mediating service should never forget to listen carefully to the needs and wants of the person with disabilities as well, otherwise, the match won’t work, as the ACCEPT project from the UKgb experienced.
Peer guidance and counselling“At the beginning of the project a number of employers were sourced who were willing to take trainees on placement and to provide a supportive environment for them to continue their training and to gain real work experience. The problem was that whilst the placements were ready to be filled, the trainees were not ready to take up these opportunities at that particular stage. This led to a re-think in the process of placement finding. Placements are now led by the trainee and when they are ready, a placement/work experience provider is made available. The system is facilitated by a database.”
“How can I get an idea of the potential of the candidate?”
An employer gets his first impression from an interview, the advice of an intermediary service or an employment office. But while the first impression is important, a work-placement period can provide a more realistic picture of the abilities of a potential employee. It can also dispel anxieties about the sick leave records of disabled people. Such periods are very useful as a ’getting to know you phase’ for both the employer and the future employee. In particular, the employer has the chance to assess if the candidate fits the job and if they can work in the team. So, a training placement can help to remove concerns. As
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a result negotiations for a permanent contract, an appropriate salary and adapted working hours can start from a more solid base, if the candidate has performed well during the placement.
In most cases, employers prefer to offer fixed-period contracts than to carry the risk of long-term engagements. According to the experience of the STEPS project in Finland, the cost-free job-coaching period offered by the project allows the employer to see what the job seeker can do. Then, if the candidate is right for the job, the chances of a long-term contract are usually better.
How the employer is approached is crucial When looking for placements for their young trainees with learning difficulties, CERCIFAF from Portugal starts by establishing a personal relationship with the employer, mainly working with small (family) businesses. It builds up its strategy as follows: we go to this “friend-entrepreneur”, and we say, “we just want to do a try-
out”. This ’is the only way to convince them, start with one example that does not force them into anything, and show them that it works;
for the work experience placement, we look for places where there is a real chance of full time employment; the placement has to lead to a job;
the contract is a mutual agreement between the person with disabilities and the employer; the needs of the two are balanced;
during the placement, we promote how valuable the young person with disabilities can be to the company;
we let the employer design the training involved in the placement according to his/her needs;
we offer support and follow-up, both before and after the contract as this raises the feeling of confidence on both sides.
The starting point for the training and job placement approach of CERCIFAF is the conviction that personal skills are at least as important as vocational training. These are the skills that enable young people to get and, more importantly, keep a job. For the real integration of people with learning difficulties, training and working life have to be seen as two phases in the same process. Training primarily takes place in the workplace. In this way, the enterprise has the opportunity to prepare the trainees for the required job profile, and this can lead to real employment. The “training monitors” (mediators) supervise and intervene only when necessary and they don’t interrupt the normal functioning of the workplace.
Some large companies have developed their own integration policies. Philips (NL), for example, offers 600 to 800 unemployed people, including disabled people, a work experience period of one year in the company, as part of their Collective Employment Agreement. A considerable number of them find work afterwards in SMEs, thanks to this work experience.
In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on training in the workplace. This kind of approach is helpful to people with disabilities because it gives them experience of work and, in addition, the employer gets an opportunity to see how the person with disability fits into the company, and how other colleagues respond. Also if the employer is interested in recruiting the trainee at the end of the training period, necessary adaptations to the workplace can be examined as well.
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This type of training is common mainstream provision in Denmark and Germany, and is called ‘the dual system’. Through transnational co-operation between the projects, it has now spread to other EU countries.
Training and work experience combined - a new approach in ItalyThe Italian project ARCOBALENO is developing new training methods in collaboration with projects from GR, ESP and F. Vocational training is combined with work experience for young people with disabilities. The training takes place in a school and a period of work experience is organised in a co-operative bank. While work experience is extremely valuable for all young people with no prior experience of working life, it is particularly important for young people with disabilities because it gives them the chance to demonstrate to employers that a handicap does not minimise professional capacities or lower productivity, in many areas of work.
“But how will co-workers react?”
Many employers worry about the reactions of co-workers to a colleague with disabilities. They often fear a negative impact on the working atmosphere which can upset the team spirit and work rhythm. Some HORIZON projects have adopted a preventive approach, offering training and information sessions to future the co-workers of a person with disabilities. In others, the job coach is a skilled problem solver who detects problems at an early stage and negotiates between the different parties.
Hesitation or doubts can also be overcome by training prospective employees to be open with employers about their disabilities and the extent that it effects their social and working lives. If this information is communicated accurately and effectively it can replace any preconceived ideas which employers and co-workers may have had.
Positive attitudes and team-buildingIntegrating someone with a disability into the workplace doesn’t always have to be a problem. Horizon projects can cite many examples of the new team member having a very positive influence on a team, being highly motivated, happy with the job, and good at time-keeping. Hiring somebody is not only a skills issue. Staff acceptance can prove to be more important in the long run.
The importance of colleagues support’ supportThe promoter of the Irish project CASE illustrates the decisive difference a supportive attitude among colleagues can make. “A job coach negotiated a trial period in a job for John but after the first week the employer felt that John wasn’t quick enough to do the job he was originally taken on to do. It looked as if John would lose his job. Luckily the other staff respected and liked him. As they saw it, he was at work at 8am every day, was highly motivated, got on really well with the staff and demonstrated that he very much wanted to work. The staff rallied around John and made a presentation to their boss and suggested that an alternative job could be developed for him. Three months later he is still working there in a position which matches his capabilities.
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A positive and supportive attitude among colleagues can make all the difference to the integration of an employee with disabilities. A survey in Finland commissioned by STAKES, the project promoter of the ECHO and STEPS projects, reported that 69% of the respondents (525 households) stated that they would be prepared to help a colleague with a disability with his/her working tasks. The survey also showed that 47% of respondents would be prepared to assist a person with disabilities with personal problems and around 40% were of the opinion that people with disabilities can enhance the working atmosphere. Only 1% of respondents answered that they wouldn’t accept a disabled person as a colleague. (Survey on attitudes towards people with disabilities made by Suomen Gallup Markkinatutkimus OY March 1997).
The following example from a Finnish project illustrates that if a person with disabilities has a real paid job and is treated with respect in the workplace, it will advance the person’s integration into society.
A salary and job esteem shows co-workers: this is a ‘real colleague’Annie is 21 and was born blind-deaf. About twenty months ago, she started a job as a ‘mail woman’ in a rehabilitation centre, working as a trainee without a salary, in the initial stages. The rest of the staff had to do a lot of preparatory work and to give a lot of help, but so far they have been willing to assist her. Having a real job was very important to Annie as it increased her self-esteem and gave her the possibility of a social life as well. “We wanted to show that Annie was capable of working in the centre and to demonstrate to her co-workers that her work was good enough to be paid for. In the beginning, many co-workers did not realise that they could actually ask Annie to do certain tasks, but all that has totally changed. Now her co-workers accept her as one of them and they agree that there are real benefits to having her at the centre. The job coach has always been available but Annie carries out her job independently most of the time”.
“Won’t practical and personal problems interfere?”
Transport, housing, health, financial issues are practical everyday problems which everyone has to face. But in the case of a person with disabilities, employers may have additional questions about prospective employees. Will the employee be able to get to work on time? Does he/she need help all the time? Will he/she be on sick leave more often? Is a person with mental health problems reliable? A good support service or support person can assist in solving such problems and in ensuring that the person with disabilities has the chance to deliver good quality work.
Getting to the workplace is a crucial issue. For people with physical disabilities, the accessibility of the workplace is fundamental and a support service can advise the potential employer on eventual adaptations and the subsidies that are available. For job coaching projects like the one from Start (NL) or AQZ (D), the first step when considering a job placement for someone with learning difficulties is to check whether he/she can get to the workplace independently.
Support in private life guarantees better working results
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The Austrian Landscape Naturschutz & Landschaftsplege Ltd. (one of the promoters of the Mona Lisa project) is a gardening and landscaping firm employing three skilled gardeners, seven people with learning difficulties or multiple disabilities and one social worker who is also skilled in gardening. This person functions as a mediator within the enterprise and has knowledge of the business. The mediator also deals with any problems the employees have outside work. Being part of the firm he can react to problems immediately. Problems like this can affect work performance and reliability and the workers would have been unable to cope in these situations without the assistance of the mediator.
While the family can often be very supportive to a person with disabilities, it can sometimes be a hurdle to integration into a job. For example, other family members might believe that the person with disabilities is not capable of holding down a job in the open labour market. The loss of the disability allowance can be another worrying factor. A mediator from a support service can help with these concerns. An example from France shows howt the mediator, in collaboration with the person with disabilities, the enterprise and the social security service came to a solution.
Denis was a very useful worker in the employment rehabilitation centre as he was handy and very serious about his work. He really wanted a “proper” job, in the public construction sector. A construction enterprise took him on as an assistant mason in a training and work experience placement. In spite of being slow in his work and not being very independent as far as transport was concerned, his general performance was good and a 24-month contract was signed after six months. However, the placement officer had to invest a considerable amount of energy in surmounting an unexpected obstacle: his family.Denis is the only son of a retired father, who was well in tune with his son’s lifestyle before he became an assistant mason. The new obligations attached to Denis’ job, such as early working hours and the loss of the disability allowance tended to upset his father. Eventually the mediator managed to persuade him to help rather than hinder his son’s new lifestyle and now after four years, Denis is still an employee in the same enterprise.
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“Can I discuss performance and behaviour if necessary?”
Quality performance is a key issue in enterprise today. With regard to questions on performance and behaviour, employers feel that they may not be in a position to treat an employee with disabilities the same way as other employees. In many cases, employers simply prefer not to take the risk of recruiting a person who might cause problems.
The HORIZON projects want to change the public perception of problems like this by promoting the fact that people with disabilities have equal rights and equal responsibilities too. The projects are promoting this idea through new innovative training programmes. In addition, many projects demonstrate that mediation and job coach methods can be a very useful way of dealing with problem situations.
Appropriate training assures that the employee understands the employer’s expectationsTraining for people with disabilities should not consist only of vocational training. Experience in the employment of persons with disabilities shows that keeping a job often depends on social skills rather than on vocational skills. Training should help trainees to understand employer expectations and the rules of working life and it should also encourage them to be open in discussing their performance, ability and disability.
Innovative training programmes to suit the individual needs of a disabled person are important and they are particularly relevant when a person has to be retrained due an accident or illness. Individual re-integration plans can be made thorough assessment of the capacities and previous work experience of the employee. Mainstream training and education systems are not usually flexible enough to meet the individual needs of a trainee in such cases. Consequently, the experiences offered by the HORIZON projects are particularly interesting and many successful innovations can be mainstreamed.
New approaches in training for people with learning difficultiesThe Finnish STEPS project, working with transnational partners from Northern Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Greece, has developed a training programme for people with learning difficulties, which includes the following modules:Social skills: the general skills necessary for independent living, such as time management, self-awareness and self-development, confidence, budget control, health and hygiene issues, verbal and non-verbal communication skills;Transferable skills: the basic skills necessary to function in the workplace today, such as knowledge of information technology, literacy and numeracy, learning skills, problem solving skills, teamwork, accepting orders from supervisors, following instructions and requesting help when needed;Vocational skills: the ability to carry out specific tasks in specific work situations.
“And what if it goes wrong?”
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Employers don’t want to feel they are ‘on their own’ when they employ a person with disabilities. A professional and experienced support service can be a point of contact for both the employer and the person with disabilities and can help them to tackle problems as they arise. These can include administrative and legal queries as well as problems with performance, or transport, or communication in the workplace. This support can encourage employers to take on employees with disabilities.
Often employers assume that if they hire a person with disabilities they will not be able to dismiss him or her should this be necessary. There are laws which provide protection against dismissal in many Member States of the EU. In the Netherlands for example, there are new regulations to increase the responsibility of the employer when an employee becomes disabled and cannot continue to do the same work. If the employee who becomes disabled cannot be relocated within the company, the employer is obliged to cover his or her social security costs for five years. Many employers are uncertain how to cope with a person with disabilities and they are afraid of attracting practical problems. They also fear a loss in productivity.
The Dutch DETAPOOL project of Start Diensten has shown how risks can be counterbalanced. The support service, based in 28 independent Detapool offices spread all over the country, takes on risks like these through a detachment formula.START sees the person with disabilities and the employer as clients. People placed by the project have usually been unemployed for more than two years due to health reasons and often have little or no qualifications. The detachment formula means that these candidates enter into a contract with Start, which seconds (out-places) them to a firm. The advantage of this system for employees is that Start provides a guidance service and if they don’t succeed, they still retain their right to social security benefits. For the employer, Start takes over the risks and the administrative paper work. The work agreement is for at least 6 months and a minimum of 15 hours a week. The employers are asked to sign a declaration of intent stating that they will give a follow-up contract, if everything goes well. Up to 60% of people originally placed in this way have obtained a follow-up contract with their employers.
For employers, it is often difficult to allocate staff time to guiding an employee with disabilities or to provide individualised training. If a job coach or training programme is offered by an external agency, recruitment becomes easier to contemplate.
STEPS (FIN) speaks from experience:“In today’s busy working life, employers are reluctant to invest in on-the-job coaching and training. We tell them that a person with learning difficulties needs more coaching than an ordinary job seeker, which sometimes frightens them. But we offer them a solution at the same time in the form of a professional job coach. However, we have to make it clear that the job coach is not an extra resource for the enterprise as a whole, but a support for the job seeker. On the other hand the job coach ensures that the colleagues can do their work without interruption and that the support does not take up the employer’s time.”
A mediation service can assist in problem solving and conflict management. Both may be needed in the early stages of a job or a placement. After that, the
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level of support can be gradually reduced. The question of the intensity of the support required is something which should always be kept under review. Support can be overdone and can create a stigma when it is too evident. Sometimes, it is important not to overact to initial criticisms. People are often happier when they are just left to do their job, without continuous interference from outsiders.
This all seems to underline the fact that the classic ‘care approach’ to people with disabilities is losing support, and some Horizon projects share in the resistance to it. Part of the alternative solution lies in empowerment, but for this to be effective, services must be improved. Other ways of supporting empowerment include:
using mixed mediation teams of professionals from the care sector and others from commercial, business and labour market backgrounds;
distinguishing clearly between problems of a transitory nature which can be solved swiftly with the right support and more persistent long-term challenges, which need more formal support mechanisms;
following the positive examples set by some large firms which have improved the integration of staff with special needs by providing social worker assistance, by establishing flexible working conditions, or by setting up study circles with other staff.
“Is there financial or other assistance available?”
Several Member States are attempting to encourage the employment of people with disabilities by introducing different kinds of incentives for employers. Systems differ, but the most common incentives are wage subsidies and grants to adapt the workplace. For small enterprises and public employers, wage subsidies are a strong incentive to recruit employees with disabilities. “Employers don’t usually know about wage subsidies,” says the STEPS project (FIN). “Our job coaches inform them about it. Employers consider very carefully these days whether to employ new staff or not and wage subsidies are one of our assets. We have to be careful though, we shouldn’t sell disabled workers at cut-rate prices, as the public sector should not subsidise private enterprises.”
In Belgium employers receive wage subsidies of up to 50% to compensate for losses in productivity.
In Ireland, employers can receive similar loss-of-productivity subsidies, as well as financial assistance for job coaches to provide skills training for employees with disabilities and support for both employers and co-workers.
Although they are useful tools for the employer, practice shows that the way these incentives are implemented can cause administrative problems. In the case of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), human resources are often
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limited and staff may not have the time to deal with numerous applications forms. So an employer, although willing to employ a person with disabilities, might decide that it would be impossible to handle all the paper work. But if an external service is available to take on the administrative tasks, it can often tip the balance in favour, enabling the employer to take advantage of existing incentives without committing internal resources.
Services to assist employers with administration The French project CREATIF Alsace has developed a service to take over the administrative burden that employers face in employing a person with disabilities. The project has a team of mediators who try to detect job possibilities within SMEs. At the same time, they give information to employers on how to employ people with disabilities. When an employer is interested, the team initially offers assistance in the selection procedure. After the employer has decided to employ a person with disabilities, a service is provided to take care of the administrative work. In practice, this means that the entire administrative procedure is taken over from the employer. The staff of CeREATIF Alsace also monitors the integration process for a period of time, which is agreed beforehand with the employer.
The voucher modelThe NEKKU-project, which is a partnership between four municipalities in the Middle Uusimaa and a sub-project of ECHO (FIN), has developed a voucher model which aims to lower the threshold to employing a person with disabilities, either through financial aid or by providing services. The voucher is a practical ‘advantage pack’ for the employer. It is always individually tailored to the background and employment requirements of the person with disabilities. It also defines the social services regime and regulations which apply to the person in question. Incentives can come from the Employment Service Office, the Social Security Institution or the Municipality. These can take the form of wage subsidies, work placement possibilities, assessment of the candidate’s ability, different kinds of training, apprenticeship contracts, physical rehabilitation and the service of a job coach. Most of the municipalities in Finland have a budget which stimulates employment measures and also provides benefits for local entrepreneurs. Part of this money is allocated to vouchers for people with disabilities. This financial benefit is only used at the start of the employment period, for example during the first six months.
But administrative hassle is not the only barrier to be overcome. The so-called ‘benefit-trap’ makes working life risky for people with disabilities because they may lose disability allowances once they start earning a salary. A German job coach reported that according to the ‘additional earning regulation’ people with a disability allowance in the Eastern Länder are only allowed to earn up to 520 DM (approx. 260 ECU) extra per month without losing their allowances. In the case of a young woman with learning difficulties who wished to work in a hotel, this meant that she could only work for less than eighteen hours a week. But the National Employment Service does not provide any subsidies for the employment of people with allowances, and this made it difficult to convince a hotel manager to offer her a job. Naturally the young woman did not want to lose her entitlement to the allowance so, a temporary solution could only be
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found in the form of a work placement. The fact that no incentives are available to employ people with a disability allowance always has a negative effect on integration efforts, according to the job coach.
This also applies to the Finnish situation quoted above. If the person is unemployed, the services and benefits of the Employment Service Office apply. If he or she receives a disability allowance, these benefits do not apply and that person cannot earn any money without losing the allowance and the voucher can only be redeemed for services, not for grants.
Some Member States have introduced quota systems for large enterprises, specifying a certain percentage of the overall number of employees who must be disabled. If this quota is not filled, the employer has to pay a fine and the money is then used to finance various measures which can lead to employment for people with disabilities. For example, according to the German quota system a company with 16 or more employees has to ensure that 6% of the staff are people with disabilities. If the company does not reach the quota, it has to pay 200 DM (approx. 100 ECU) for every unfilled post. The employment quotas average around 3.8% in Germany.
Support to fulfil quota The Horizon promoter AWIPH works in co-operation with 8 towns in Belgium and they all have agreed to employ 1 person with disabilities for every 55 employees. The project has helped the municipalities to reach this quota by providing pre-recruitment assistance and training. The project provides architectural advice on how to adapt buildings to make them accessible for people with disabilities, which has led these towns to make it obligatory for all public buildings to have easy access facilities.
“Can we do business?”
Approaches to an employer, either directly by people with disabilities, or from mediators, must be conducted professionally and in a business-like way. They must also be strongly positive, emphasising that employers’ pre-occupations with quality and efficiency are well understood.
The CENDI project in Spain has some helpful recommendations for projects or agencies preparing themselves to offer an employment service. It suggests combining different marketing strategies:
information and communication activities (articles in the press, TV and radio spots, conferences, etc.);
the design of a marketing plan (including company image, logos, publicity, publications and dissemination methods);
direct marketing (door-to-door visits to employers to make the service known and to establish personal, confidence-based professional relationships);
follow-up contact (return visits and contacts prepared by leaving leaflets, CVs and calling cards).
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Many employers have never employed people with disabilities simply because no one ever suggested they should do so. If they are ‘sold’ the idea in the right way, there is every chance that they will consider it. ‘Study clubs’ of employers, as they exist in Denmark and the Netherlands, and other networks and groups where employers gather to discuss various issues, including the social side of an enterprise, can be good starting points.
A HORIZON mediator ‘sold’ the idea to a supermarket manager
A Finnish supermarket employed a young disabled man and gave him the opportunity to work on an equal basis with other employees in the supermarket. The owner of the supermarket explained that she was approached by the programme manager of the ECHO project with a view to employing a person with disabilities. Nobody had ever asked her to consider this before and she agreed, once it was pointed out that the project would provide follow-up support for any problems that might occur. Both the employer and the co-workers are satisfied with the employee, who was given a permanent job after a trial period. The employee is valued as a service-minded, motivated worker who is always cheerful.
People with disabilities have to be made to think competitively and trained to explain and sell their skills. Training programmes often include modules on how to apply for a job, and should provide training in self-confidence.
Offer ability, not disability - A Danish way of marketing The trainees at the Danish Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted are being trained as telemarketing salespersons. The aim is to produce a different type of salesperson. “We are trying to stand out from the crowd,” says the Project Manager. The limitation of visual impairment can be turned into an opportunity to open doors. The trainees have developed their other senses to a very high level. They know how to listen carefully and how to figure out the type of person to whom they are talking. Trainees contact companies themselves to seek a work placement. In this way the employer gets to know the trainees through their work, and the first contact is made within a professional telemarketing situation. The employer only learns about the visual impairment in the second phase. The trainees arebecome often headhunted by private companies, and ten out of fourteen trainees have been offered permanent jobs. Today 80% of the telemarketing consultants trained by the project work in paid jobs.
3. Mediation
In the last two decades, most companies in manufacturing, commerce and services have radically changed their human resource policies. The most significant changes have been:
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assessment and recruitment activities previously done in-house, have been progressively contracted out to specialist companies and agencies;
part-time work, flexi-time, temp work, out-placement and subcontracting are all used to make labour more flexible and to cut personnel costs;
increasingly flexible and just-in-time approaches to training
The experience of Horizon projects confirms that all these approaches can be reconciled with the employment and training needs of people with disabilities. The key is mediation customised to meet the requirements of specific jobs and individual people with disabilities.
Mediating services - public and private - have always played an important role in the vocational training, guidance and placement of people with disabilities. However, nowadays more professionalism and a better and more concrete understanding of the needs of employers are demanded. SMEs require particular attention in this respect; they provide a great deal of employment but they do not have the resources to find solutions themselves for many specific problems.
Given the rate of change in the labour market, the development of mediation services for people with disabilities has been slow. However, the complexity of disability, the frequently unexplored employment potential of people with disabilities require special mediation services covering everything from vocational training to post-placement support.
CENDI from Bilbao (ESP) advocates developing a strategic business plan for mediation including a professional marketing strategy causing the following:
inform : bring the existence of the work force of people with disabilities to the attention of businesses, so that they can include them in their human resource planning;
open communication channels with employers : offer advice on topics such as incentives, ergonomy, support services, etc.;
promote your integration service : as a specialised agency, clearly distinct from, and easily identified among, other intermediary services .
The mediatorThe mediation activities and services developed in HORIZON projects confirm the emergence of a new occupation, a ‘Professional Mediator’. This mediation role has different titles in different Member States and projects (job hunter, integration assistant, job coach, employment monitor) and the extent of his/her functions may vary. But what is common is the fact that, as one of the projects stated, he or she has to operate like a “centipede” with a foot in many different camps. First of all, mediators have to have a commercial and market oriented approach, since one of their main tasks is to find new client-companies and hunt for job opportunities. But at the same time, they should have an equal opportunities approach, believing that there is a place for people with disabilities in the labour market and wanting to contribute to their integration. They must also be aware of problems in and outside work and must maintain strong contacts with companies where people with disabilities are, or will be, employed. So, a good mediator must have a range of capabilities, good communication
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skills, commercial and organisational skills, flexibility and an ability to deal with stress, knowledge of the labour market and the educational and social security systems. And he/she must also be an excellent problem solver.
The Ausbilderqualifizierungszentrum in Güstrow (D) has developed a training course for this “Integrationsbegleiter” (mediator - job coach). Profile analysis, recruiting and informing companies, job finding, describing job requirements and assessing their employment potential for people with disabilities, guidance and coaching, conflict-solving and crisis intervention are all integrated into this course. The content of the training includes: local, regional and national authorities: structure and responsibilities and how
to collaborate with them; legal basis of disability, social and labour law; illness and disability profiles, their causes and effects; work studies e.g. work structure and organisation, job analysis, potential of
people with disabilities and their preparation for the job; company contact, linked to telephone training; models integrating people with disabilities into the open labour market,
including creativity training; financial management, marketing and public relations.The training is strongly linked to practice: each of the twelve mediators trained by the project also assists six people with disabilities with their integration into work.
AQZ is lobbying to get its mediators integrated in official bodies like the employment service. Several of these have already been convinced of the usefulness of employing such an expert, but have no funds available to do it.
The German National Labour & Social Ministry has acknowledged a growing need for this service and have now issued a call for tender for a “Modellversuch Integrationsfachdienste” (pilot programme for professional integration services), providing funding for 3 years, in which the AQZ will participate. It is financed out of the “Ausgleichsabgabe Schwerbehindertengesetz” (the quota system under which if a company has more than 16 employees, 6% have to be people with disabilities; if not, a compensation fine has to be paid).
Mediation strategies in HORIZONOn a practical level, mediation is a method of gathering together all those who play a part in integrating a person with disabilities so that together they can find the best way of achieving it. Mediation may be related to the whole integration process, or may just be concentrated on certain elements of this process.
For the ACCEPT project in the UK, mediation is an integrated function, and the whole of the agency participates in its development. The Accept strategy to create employment opportunities has four strands: 1. pre-vocational and vocational training resulting in a qualification ;2. placements: placements within 10 training/social enterprises, possibly leading to
employment; placements with external employers, also potentially leading to employment
opportunities;
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over 200 employers in a network;3. an employment agency, working on 2 levels: demonstration of the abilities of trainees producing quality products and
services; working as an agency for temporary work and a source of mental health
awareness to employers;4. a job club: where individuals get training in basic skills, help with CVs and applications for jobs.
Not all people need the same support: different kinds of disabilities call for different mediation methods and degrees of support. The Dutch organisation Start was involved in a transnational partnership called Matchwork, linking four projects from the INTEGRA and HORIZON strands of Employment, which worked on the development of a tailor-made approach to mediation.
Labour market empowermentThe Matchwork partnership analysed the approaches of the various partners to integrating disadvantaged groups into the labour market, and this resulted in a “best-practice” model for placement activities. The partners came to the conclusion that a different approach is needed for those people with a disability who have a potential for increased employability. They developed a tailor-made approach, based on the distance from the labour market of the person to be placed. Sometimes extra training will fill the gap, but in other cases a person with learning difficulties will never achieve full productivity. Though operating in different national settings, the Matchwork partners have succeeded in developing a joint methodology which has proved useful and helpful to their different target groups: people with disabilities, immigrants, and the long-term unemployed. With the help of an external consultant, the partnership refined a model of labour market empowerment from their various approaches. This approach is explained in their joint report, which can be ordered from Start Diensten (see project list).
Handing over the support roleThe support of an external mediator cannot be permanent and strategies have to be developed to pass on the role to people in companies. CERCIFAF in Portugal has designed a strategy of ‘natural support networks’. Working mostly with small family enterprises, they start by establishing direct contact with the employer, and then stimulate personal contact and a feeling of responsibility between the employer and the disabled worker. Instead of having an outside monitor or mediator, a co-worker inside the enterprise is identified who can give support and guidance when needed. This support approach is not only limited to the enterprise but it is important to support the family as well, especially, when a young person with a disability starts his/her career. For example, colleagues working with a young person organise lunch together in order to get to know each other better and all the team members are made aware of the daily routine of the colleague with disability, thus multiplying the ‘natural support’ into a network. CERCIFAF also establishes good contacts with institutions, including social service and health care, and the local authorities. In this way, a person with disability can be integrated into working life in the most natural way. When the ‘natural support network’ is well established, CERCIFAF’s job is done. Local companies are constantly encouraged to employ people with disabilities and thus create a general ‘supportive’ environment in the region.
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4. Raising awareness
Many employers are reluctant to recruit people with disabilities simply because they have no real knowledge of how and where they have been successfully integrated into the workplace. So, effective strategies have to be developed to influence attitudes towards their employment through targeted awareness-raising and the provision of information. Many people with disabilities have found a niche in the labour market but this good news must be publicised if it is to produce a fundamental change in thinking among people with disabilities, employers and the public at large. The strength of HORIZON is that it provides opportunities to experiment with awareness-raising, and many projects are developing proactive strategies to challenge traditional attitudes and influence policies.
HORIZON projects seek out opportunities to promote disability awareness and to highlight success stories through TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and brochures. In addition, NGOs and other services for people with disabilities in the Member States are promoting a positive attitude towards people with disabilities by linking the disability factor with equal opportunities. Employers who recruit people with disabilities are encouraged to use special logos on their letterheads, publications and in their marketing campaigns. This greatly helps their public image.
Raising public awarenessThe topic of employment and disability has to be promoted in a comprehensive way. The ACCEPT project (UKni) works directly with employers to improve policies and procedures, but has a parallel objective of reducing the stigma of mental illness. The project believes that employers will be more convinced of the value of recruiting people with mental health problems if social attitudes to their employment could be changed. One way of effecting such a change is to target individual members of the general public because at some point in time they may be a work colleague, a shop-floor supervisor or the relative of an employer - someone who can influence the recruitment of a person with disabilities and his or her integration into the workplace. ACCEPT has developed contacts with many individuals through external groups ranging from chambers of commerce to rotary clubs, trade unions, women’s groups and voluntary bodies and it estimates that it has reached over 100 000 people through its public awareness-raising campaign and provided help to over 7000 individuals.
The ACCEPT project’s ‘One Stop Information Shops’ have now become a familiar feature of high streets in Northern Ireland. These drop-in information centres are colourful and attractive, with the words ‘Mental Health’ boldly displayed above the entrance. They promote a positive image of mental health and encourage visitors to come in and ask for information on how to handle stress in the workplace. Another awareness raising tool developed by the project is a cartoon-type computer game called ‘How Mentally Healthy are You’ for passers-by to try out in major shopping areas. The game is fun to play and is informative in a
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subtle way. The user may know very little about disability but will subconsciously pick up positive ideas about it.
ACCEPT forms part of a transnational partnership network with partners from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany Spain and Finland, which will be increased in the second phase of HORIZON. The partners feed off each other to develop effective information strategies, for example, some of the other partners decided to translate and disseminate the series of information booklets produced by the partner in Northern Ireland. The transnational network regularly publishes its partnership results in the transnational magazine called ‘EuroACCEPT’.
Using new technology to open-up attitudes Modern communication technologies can powerfully extend the spread of positive information and help to shift negative attitudes to disability, particularly in a country like Greece where state and voluntary disability bodies are not very well known, and where the term ‘people with special needs’ only started to be used in the mid 1980’s. Tele-service employment is helping to bring people with disabilities into mainstream employment and to overturn traditional attitudes towards recruiting people with disabilities.
The promoter of DISNET STEP has five tele-centres equipped with the latest computer technology which train and find employment for people with sensory disabilities. Professionals in the tele-service sector are in short supply in Greece and these centres are becoming quite well known because they are supplying a much-needed, trained labour force. The experience of these tele-centres reveals that employers are beginning to realise that disability is not a bar to productive work if the employee has the necessary professional skills.
In addition to performing their normal functions, tele-centres can sometimes become sources of information. DISNET STEP was being constantly approached by employers and trainees wanting to know more. As a result, these tele-centres centres started to provide information through Information Communication Technology (ICT) for people with disabilities, employers and community groups. DISNET STEP has now set up a Pan-Hellenic database which provides information on technological aids which are available world-wide to support the insertion of people with disabilities into the workplace. This database also has data on medical, legal and job possibilities for people with disabilities and its address is: h ttp://147.102.33.1/disnet
Promotion strategies using ICT can help to make the employment of people with disabilities a live issue, and successful practice can be effectively communicated through the Internet and employer network databases which are often linked to trainee pools and educational centres. Another good feature of computer networking is a dialogue facility which is quite popular with employers as it enables them to discuss their concerns with other employers. This employer-trainee / employer-employer contact through new technologies means that the appropriate information gets through to the right employer at the right time. LIKA VILLKOR (S) agrees that there is considerable scope for awareness raising through ICT: “We hope we can reach far more employers through new technology than we normally would by contacting them one by one”.
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While busy employers don’t always have time to read promotional material, they may be more open to exploring information technology tools. LIKA VILLKOR produced a promotional CD ROM on the recruitment of people with disabilities. The project found that a CD ROM programme was a very effective way of communicating positive outcomes simply because, “it is far more fun to play with the computer than to read a paper”.
The CD ROM programme sets up a simulated situation so that the user briefly experiences what it is like to be blind or deaf: an explosion occurs on the screen and the user sees jumbled images and hears garbled sounds. After the user has assimilated this sensory experience, the programme moves through a wealth of useful information such as interviews with people with disabilities, opinions of employers and work colleagues and details about adapting the workplace, some problems and their solutions.
DUET was originally set up as an intermediate company by a vocational training centre, and now operates as a financially viable enterprise. Both people with disabilities and non-disabled colleagues work side by side, and the promoters feel that this enhances the principle of mainstreaming and helps to reduce prejudice. The project received a Flemish Award in February ‘96 for the creation of a Solidarity Enterprise employing people with disabilities. This award and the media coverage which followed catapulted the project into the public eye and also gave it further opportunities to promote its ideas to other employers.
Communicating its successful methodology to other companies is an important part of the work of DUET, and the project often gives presentations to employers and trade union groups. The project admits that employing people with a disability is often considered unrealistic from an economic perspective and works to counteract these ideas by disseminating its positive experience. “By setting up our own enterprise in DUET we have created a wider forum which can raise awareness among other companies and convince them that employing people at risk on the job market, and especially people with a disability, is economically feasible.”
Sometimes a practical approach is the best way to promote successful practice, and for employers hands-on experience can be much more effective than any number of well meaning discussions. The project decided to invite outside employers to a practical working day in their chocolate factory. “DUET doesn’t want to just talk anymore. At our open-day employers and policy-makers are given the opportunity to work for a while among our company employees. Facts-by-doing sessions generate more reflection”.
DUET would like to bring this positive awareness to a transnational level as well. The project’s aim is to initiate a process whereby successful, practical experience can be communicated from company to company within the various Member States. It is hoped that by enhancing the profile of employment and disability among representatives of the social partners, the subject will begin to have more and more prominence on national political agendas and that a climate of greater acceptance will slowly begin to emerge.
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An Employer’s View
An interview with Ms Catherine Lambe, Human Resources Officer from H.J. Heinz European Frozen & Chilled Foods Ltd. Dundalk, Ireland, shows how an open attitude and a specific policy for the integration of disadvantaged groups into the workforce can lead to jobs for people with disabilities in the open labour market. The following quotes from Ms Lambe illustrates this company’s approach and experience:
“The multinational company H.J. Heinz has an open recruitment policy and wants its workforce to be a reflection of the wider community in which it is located. The company welcomes applications from all kinds of people and will consider candidates from various excluded groups, this would include the long-term unemployed and people with disabilities.
The appropriate qualifications and skills are essential. The company is interested in recruiting people who have the skills and qualifications required to carry out the work.
One of the company’s difficulties in implementing this policy is in getting suitable applications from people with disabilities.
People with disabilities are not usually as confident as non-disabled people in putting themselves forward for work for which they are qualified.
The company has not looked for or received wage subsidies or grants, to date. All new employees, whether disabled or not, receive initial training because
the company accepts that new employees have skill gaps which may need to be filled-in with appropriate training. Training is usually provided by in-house instructors and is usually job specific. On-going training is part of company policy for all employees.
The company is flexible in providing extra training and close mentoring for people with disabilities, if needed. In addition, employees with disabilities who have job coaches keep in close contact with them.
Productivity and efficiency is facilitated by setting down procedures for each task and employees are then systematically trained against each procedure. This approach is particularly effective for people with learning difficulties.
All employees are given a 6-month probation period. Within that 6-month period there is a 3-month assessment point, and then a final assessment is made at the end of the 6 months. If the employee is successful after the 6-month period, he/she becomes a full-time, permanent employee. In the case of people with learning difficulties, the first 3-month assessment may be too short to see their full potential. The company has no problem in accommodating this and is prepared to invest extra time and training to help all new employees to settle in.
Initially work colleagues may have had concerns about working alongside people with disabilities. The company counteracted these attitudes with in-house awareness raising training to address the concerns of colleagues and management. It has been the experience of the company that recruiting people with disabilities has had a positive impact on the working environment and attitudes within the plant have evolved considerably over the years.
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The staff generally responds to a superior with a disability as a work colleague in their own right and the disability factor is not an issue. All employees who have been promoted within the company are respected for their skills and position. People with disabilities have the same opportunity for promotion as other staff.
The NRB representative in the area was very supportive to H.J. Heinz in that he visited and looked over the plant with the management in order to identify the company’s skill requirements. He then proceeded to match these requirements with suitable candidates with disabilities. The company receives a lot of good applications from people with disabilities as a result of this approach.
Safety is an issue which the company is very conscious of and a lot of care is taken not to place an employee with disabilities in an unsuitable work environment. For example, a person with a hearing impairment would not be required to work in a noisy factory area with forklift trucks and moving vehicles. This issue needs to be considered carefully by employers and it is important to ensure that an employee with disabilities is placed in a safe and secure work environment.
As a final point, employers should be encouraged to have an open mind on the employment of people with disabilities. Although recruiting a disabled person may involve a little extra effort and training in the beginning, employers need to realise that it works out very well in a lot of cases. Employees with disabilities have made a positive contribution to the development of a team based culture in the H. J. Heinz plant. In addition, people with disabilities who have successfully integrated into the workforce find that this has a positive impact on their social life.
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SUMMARY
Finding your place in the open labour market and in the community is not always easy for anyone, but for people with disabilities it is even more difficult. Employers have doubts about employing people with disabilities and these doubts are often based on misinformation or a general lack of information. HORIZON projects, in co-operation with their transnational partners, have developed a whole range of practical solutions to these questions. The successful results which were identified by the Work Group have been outlined in this publication and can be summarised as follows:
1 People with disabilities are not a homogeneous group. When they enter the labour market, there will be cases when they, and their employer, need specific support. Many projects have developed a mediation strategy to facilitate this. A mediator can have several functions depending on the context in which he/she works, but the four duties are particularly relevant to the role.
Analysing the needs of the employer and the demands of the labour market, and listening to people with disabilities, taking into account their abilities, needs and wishes. A mediator must communicate with both sides in order to integrate successfully the person with disabilities into the working environment.
Building-up formal and informal networks between service providers and employers increases the possibility of finding jobs and work placements for people with disabilities.
Providing support for job canvassing and job development enables the employer to rationalise the work and find new ways of organising the tasks to help a person with disabilities to fit into the company.
Providing external advice and assistance to employers can also help to overcome their concerns:
providing professional advice and administrative assistance to apply for and manage incentives/subsidies, can ease the employer’s burden. Incentives and subsidies are often provided to compensate for productivity problems when a person with disabilities is recruited;
solving problems in relation to transport, housing, health and finance;
helping to solve problems when they arise in the workplace, and giving advice on how to adapt the workplace for a disabled employee;
informing or training work colleagues by building-up positive attitudes and providing support when needed.
2 Both fear of the unknown and misinformation can be handled through targeted information campaigns and training. Several innovative ways of providing appropriate information were identified by the Work Group:
raising public awareness through TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and brochures;
using new technologies, such as web-sites, CD ROM’s and databases to encourage positive attitudes towards people with disabilities;
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organising presentations of the successful experiences of other employers.
All measures for employers are more successful when the service provider adopts a professional marketing strategy and offers ability and quality, instead of disability and charity.
HORIZON would like to continue the dialogue with employers and people with disabilities. It is hoped that this publication will be the starting point for further discussion in a second Thematic Group which has been established for the remaining lifetime of the EMPLOYMENT Initiative on the Role of Employers vis-à-vis People with Disabilities.
MEMBERS OF THE THEMATIC WORK GROUP
BELGIUM(nl)Workmate/Into WorkBert BooneVernieuwende Werkvormen e.s.v.Coupure Links 629, B - 9000 GentTel: +32-9-266 18 18Fax: +32-9-266 18 20E-mail: [email protected] group: People with disabilities
BELGIUM(fr)La Charte-ville pour l’intégration des personnes handicapéesBrigitte Plumet AWIPHAvenue des Alliés 2, B - 6000 CharleroiTel: +32-71-23 86 11Fax: +32-71-23 87 77Target group: People with disabilities
DENMARKBusiness Enterprise ‘Tele-trading House’Janne HansenInstituttet for Blinde og SvagsynedeRymarksvej 1, DK - 2900 HellerupTel: +45-39-62 41 00Fax: +45-39-40 04 05Target group: Blind and partially sighted people
GERMANYErweiterung des Integrationsprozesses von Behinderten auf dem offenen ArbeitsmarktDr. Hannelore Kruschel / Dietmar CasselAusbilderqualifizierungszentrum Güstrow (AQZ)Speicherstrasse 13, D - 18273 GüstrowTel: +49-3843-68 11 38Fax: +49-3843-68 51 19
Target group: People with disabilities
GREECEDisnet StepAspasia DassiosDimitra Institute of Training and DevelopmentP.O.Box 1233, GR - 41110 LarissaTel: +30-41-544 026/7Fax: +30-41-544 028E-mail: [email protected] group: People with physical and/or sensorial disabilities
SPAINInserción laboral de personas con discapacidad física y/o sensorialMirene Zabalgogeascoa / Begoña RuedaCENDI, IGONRipa 7, E - 418001 BilbaoTel: +34-4-435 99 00Fax: +34-4-435 99 09E-mail: [email protected] group: People with physical and/or sensorial disabilities
FRANCECréatif AlsaceMarc LacaudSavoir et Compétence19, rue Thiergarten, F - 67000 StrasbourgTel: +33-3-88 75 18 05Fax: +33-3-88 32 84 38E-mail: [email protected] group: People with disabilities
IRELANDCaseJill CareyStep Enterprises
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30 Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, IRL - Dublin 18Tel: +353-1-295 23 79Fax: +353-1-295 23 71E-mail: [email protected] group: People with learning difficulties
ITALYArcobalenoSilvia PeraIRECOOP VenetoVia Savelli 128, I - 35100 PadovaTel: +39-49-807 61 43Fax: +39-49-807 61 36Target group: People with disabilities
LUXEMBOURGAction éducative en Milieu ouvertRaymond CeccottoDomaine du Château, 10, rue du Château, LUX - 4976 Bettange-sur-MessTel: +352-379 19 11Fax: +352-371 16 96Target group: People with disabilities
NETHERLANDSStart Detapool / Start Job-CoachingAnastasia GoedbloedStart Holding BVPostbus 478, NL - 2800 AL GoudaTel: +31-182-54 58 58Fax: +31-182-54 54 69E-mail: [email protected] group: Job seekers receiving a disability allowance; unemployed people who need special facilities at the workplace according to Dutch disability law (Detapool); People with severe learning difficulties (Job-Coaching)
AUSTRIAMona LisaWerner KammelLANDSCAPE Naturschutz & Landschaftspflege GmbHRiegelschneiderweg 15, A - 8073 Feldkirchen/GrazTel: +43-316-24 41 94 Fax: +43-316-24 41 94Target group: People with learning difficulties; people with multiple disabilities
PORTUGALSilenosLuís RoqueCERCIFAFRua 9 de Dezembro 99, Monte de São Jorge
P - 4820 FafeTel: +351-53-59 91 55 / 59 79 32Fax: +351-53-59 79 32E-mail: cercifaf @ mail.telepac.pt Target group: Young people with learning difficulties
FINLANDE.C.H.O. / STEPSEsko HänninenSTAKES ConsortiumRatapihantie 9, P.O.Box 110, SF - 00521 HelsinkiTel: +358-9-1735 27 44Fax: +358-9-1735 27 91E-mail: [email protected] Harkapaa, Rehabilitation FoundationTarget group: People with mental health problems (E.C.HO.)People with learning difficulties; people with physical disabilities; socially excluded long-term unemployed people (STEPS)
SWEDENLika Villkor - RedisAnna Johansson / Amelie von ZweigberkLika Villkor i SverigeS - 12288 EnskedeTel: +46-8-39 90 00Fax: +46-8-39 91 58E-mail: amvz @ iris.se / [email protected] group: Employers
UK (Great Britain)ACCEPT Business CentreAndy Cox / Robert McDonaldMental Health MattersAdamson House, 2nd Floor65 Westgate RoadNE1 1SG Newcastle upon TyneTel: +44-191-510 33 99Fax: +44-191-510 26 39E-mail: mhm @ acceptbc.demon.co.uk Target group: People with enduring mental ill health
UK (Northern Ireland)AcceptDerek McClurec/o ITOMourne Villa, Knockbracken Healthcare Park, Saintfield Road, UKni - BT8 8BH BelfastTel: +44-1232-40 37 26Fax: +44-1232-40 37 27E-mail: ITO [email protected] group: People with mental health problems
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Social partners:Marja Ikonen, KKK Supermarket (FIN)Catherine Lambe, H.J. Heinz European Frozen& Chilled Foods Ltd. (IRL)Joe Roe, Irish Congress of Trade Unions (IRL)
NRB (IRL):John Phelan, Andrea Dodd
Michael Gogarty & Jacqui Browne (Facilitators)
European Commission:Angelos Angelidis
Europs:Eija Nylund, Liesbet De Letter, Tessa Zaeyen,Helen Troy, Louis van Amelsvoort
We would like to thank Nicola Bedlington (European Disability Forum, Brussels), Drs. A.L.A. van der Bruggen (Philips, Eindhoven, NL) and Gretta Higgins (Dublin, IRL) for their interesting comments and positive contributions to this publication.
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HORIZON IN BRIEF
EMPLOYMENT-HORIZON is one of the four strands of the EMPLOYMENT Community Initiative. Through it, Member States and the European Commission are working together to tackle the problems of exclusion of people with disabilities from the labour market.
Member States implement EMPLOYMENT in partnership with the European Commission. National Support Structures (NSS) have also been established in each Member State to assist in the implementation of EMPLOYMENT, and the European Commission has additionally established a technical assistance office at European level, entitled EUROPS.
Like the other strands of the EMPLOYMENT Initiative, HORIZON is being implemented in two phases: 1995-97 and 1997-99, involving two waves of projects, each project usually lasting 2-3 years. The overall budget for HORIZON for the period 1994-99 is over 1000 million ECU, of which more than 513 million ECU is provided by the European Union.
The principles underpinning the EMPLOYMENT Initiative are:
transnationality: projects must work in partnership with Employment projects in other Member States which are focused on similar or complementary priorities;
innovation: in the context of national and regional practice and priorities, this involves experimenting with new ideas or methods, or with new combinations of existing ideas, methods or collaborators;
local involvement: projects should involve a wide range of local individuals and organisations, both public and private, so that their combined knowledge and experience can be focused on the development of appropriate training, guidance or employment provision;
multiplier effect: the projects' experiences should be recorded, evaluated and widely disseminated through expert and professional networks and to the general public;
complementarity: with related European Union initiatives and programmes.
Within the overall context of the EMPLOYMENT Initiative, HORIZON aims to support the better integration of people with disabilities into the labour market. HORIZON particularly
improves the delivery of services based on the individual needs of people with disabilities and strengthens co-operation between the professionals and actors in the field;
changes attitudes amongst employers, trade unions and other local actors in pursuit of more holistic approaches;
involves people with disabilities as actors in their own progress towards open employment.
HORIZON projects explore new ways of meeting these aims and, by the end of the Initiative in 1999, some 1700 projects will have explored new ways of ensuring that people with disabilities are better prepared and have more opportunities of finding employment.
The text of this publication has been produced by the European Office for Programme Support (EUROPS) which assists the European Commission in the implementation of the ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT Community.
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The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs.
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