For workers living with a disability, pathways to sustainable employment in the open labour market are inhibited by barriers operating at different structural and societal levels. The culture of ...Australia’s government employment services has applied a ‘work-first’ approach that emphasises finding people employment rather than supporting the acquisition of skills and education. The net effect of this approach is the preferencing of short-term employment solutions, with a focus on individual behaviour or so-called resilience and an emphasis on personal responsibility instead of addressing structural issues. In this paper, we explore how people with disability can be supported in finding employment through a shared resilience approach offered by a Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE). We suggest that WISEs can provide the conditions for shared resilience by developing and sustaining networks needed to generate hybrid pathways to work and by role modelling inclusive work conditions in the open labour market.
Problems have been identified in the provision of on-the-job training for people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to investigate staff knowledge and use of appropriate training ...strategies, and the perceptions of employees with intellectual disabilities of the on-the-job training. Three staff and four employees with intellectual disabilities working in one Australian Disability Enterprise participated in the study. Questionnaires, interviews, and examination of training documentation were used to examine the provision of on-the-job training to employees with intellectual disabilities. Staff reported on their knowledge and use of 15 empirically validated training and support strategies. Of these 15 strategies, only 2 were reported to have been used consistently by staff. Employees with intellectual disabilities reported that they were eager to learn new work skills but were not receiving the necessary training to assist them in learning such skills. The minimal utilisation of available training strategies to teach employees with intellectual disabilities workplace skills may indicate a lack of knowledge or confidence, or both, by staff in using the various training strategies. Further research is needed into the skills needed by staff whose job requires provision of on-the-job training to people with intellectual disabilities.
