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Placement of Job-Seekers with Disabilities
5. Building external alliances

The employment service is part of a network of services, associations, and agencies which all have a direct or indirect contribution to make in promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities (see Diagram 2, p. 48). Linkages within this network, if strategically planned, can assist the service to maximize its effectiveness.

Linkages with employer organizations can assist the employment service in opening the door to employment for many more disabled job-seekers than would be possible if individual employers were contacted separately. It is increasingly apparent that resources need to be devoted to developing such linkages, given the large number of disabled job-seekers in many countries and the limited resources available to the placement service.

Linkages with organizations of disabled people feature less commonly than those with employer organizations, but in some countries they are now seen as important in providing peer support to job seekers, either informally, or formally through job-seeking skills training (job clubs).

New approaches to service delivery are being developed in employment services in many countries, because:

• public employment services increasingly lack the resources (staff, funds, facilities) needed to carry out all the activities within their mandate;
• some of the components may be within the mandate of the placement services, but may be more effectively provided by other agencies;
• some of the components may lie outside the mandate of the placement service (such as skills training, promotional activities).

By linking with other agencies, not only will the necessary services be delivered to employers and job-seekers, but the cooperative effort may lead to a greater improvement in employment opportunities than if each of the agencies operated in isolation.

Job placement

The job placement function is carried out by the employment service in all countries, sometimes in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and vocational training centre staff. There is often a benefit from such collaboration, as NGOs frequently have greater flexibility in approach which the public employment service can learn from and build upon. Where the placement service for job-seekers with disabilities is a specialist service which caters only to this target group, then linkages to the mainstream placement service should also be developed.

Other services

Some component services may be provided by the employment service or be the responsibility of skills training centres, NGOs, the social work department of the ministry of health or social welfare, or counselling services provided publicly or privately. Where an external organizaton or agency is involved, the employment service may contact them about providing the service required, or commission them to provide a specific service on behalf of an employment service client. These include:

• skills training
• vocational assessment
• training in job-seeking skills
• self-employment training and supports
• operation of production units
• work trials
• job coaching
• follow-up support
• counselling
• social investigation.

Where the employment service relies on services provided externally, resources should be devoted to:

• negotiating the service for individual clients
• ensuring that the service provided meets the identified need
• providing feedback on the service, drawing on job-seeker and employer comments.

Example:

Through their contacts with employers and their knowledge of labour market trends, placement officers are in a good position to:

• identify skills currently required in the labour market and those likely to be required in the future, in which training is not currently being provided
• give valuable feedback on the relevance of existing training courses and on any changes which might be required.

This information should be passed to the skills training centres, so that graduates from their courses are equipped with up-to-date, employable skills. Placement officers may also be able to assist the training centres in arranging on-the-job training opportunities and work trials in local companies.

The employment service may need to draw on the services of professional counselors and social workers, where the individual job-seekers' requirements or problems go beyond vocational assessment and guidance as generally understood. Placement officers need to learn to recognize when the demands being placed on them by job-seekers go beyond the services they are competent to provide, and when they should call in a professional counselor or social worker.

Sometimes contacts with families of disabled job-seekers are important since the families make up the job-seekers' primary support network and can be invaluable in ensuring that the person gets to work on time, and in providing support if any problems arise. Job placement officers can draw on families in this context, although once again, if the contact with families is for other reasons - such as overprotectiveness of the disabled person - it may be more appropriate for social workers to become involved.

Linkages with other ministries

At a policy level, the employment service can benefit from links with other government ministries - in particular ministries responsible for education, transport, and the built environment. Through these channels, issues relating to literacy, transport, and accessibility which arise in trying to place disabled people to jobs can be brought to the attention of the ministries responsible, which can take steps to improve service.

Media

The employment service may benefit from linkages with the media, and with advertising companies to assist it in its promotional work. Such linkages could be developed, for example, as a follow-up to a conference on the image of disabled people in the media, where interested professionals could be invited to form a working group on promoting positive images of workers with disabilities. This could lead not only to a more positive image of disabled people as portrayed in the media, but also to the development of effective promotional materials targeted at potential employers.

Universities, research institutes

Linkages with university departments and research institutes should also be fostered. These may already be conducting research and development projects relating to disability or could be encouraged to do so. Examples are projects to develop technical aids, computer programmes, or devices which can enhance the employment prospects of people with certain types of disability. The assistance of university departments in developing new devices and in other projects to assist disabled people in employment could also be encouraged by involving undergraduate and graduate students in small-scale research and development work in this area.

5. Building external alliances
Placement of Job-Seekers with Disabilities

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