Employment for people with disabilities Episode 67 of Transition Tuesday

If you’d like to receive our Episode 67 bonus PDF on employment for people with disabilities, click this link http://tensigma.org/episode67bonus Finding employment can be challenging for some people, but it can be especially challenging for people with special needs to obtain and maintain employment. An important role of Transition teachers is to prepare their students for employment after high school and to help them find job opportunities. Whether a student lives in an urban, suburban, or rural community presents unique challenges and opportunities. The key to remember is that helping students with disabilities to find jobs may often requires patience, effort, and time but it is well worth it when a student is gainfully employed. As with all students, preparing students with special needs requires preparing them for employment with information, experiences, and support for things like: • Essential workplace skills • Educating them about important child labor laws • Helping them be aware of the disability and what they should and should not disclose to an employer • Developing a resume • Helping them understand that searching for a job may be a short or lengthy process depending on things like the number of applicants, available jobs, etc. • Having access to structured school-to-work programs • Having realistic discussions about the jobs they currently have the skills and ability to do According to the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition – University of Minnesota, quality school-to-work programs include: • Clear goals and training plans • Clear roles and responsibilities for worksite supervisors, mentors, teachers, support staff, and other partners. • Links between students, schools, and employers • On-the-job learning • Assessments to identify skills, interests, and support for improving needs • Reinforcement of work-bases learning outside of work like working on being organized in the classroom which positively impacts performance and employability Here are a couple of important steps teachers can take to help their students find employment: • Talk to people at businesses wherever you go including places like banks, restaurants, movie theaters, garden suppliers, churches, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. • Create cards similar to business cards with your contact information to leave with business owners or managers in the event of job openings that may fit the abilities of your students • Look for businesses with diverse employees to promote to people you know and thank them for inclusivity and diversity. • Approach community organizations like Rotary, Kiwanis, Chamber of Commerce, MeetUp Groups, Lean in Circles • Share stories about businesses who help students and have successful experiences. • Talking with school administration to see if there might be opportunities for students to work around the school doing things like working in the school store, landscaping chores, or cleaning hallways. • Look for opportunities for job shadowing or volunteering to help your students gain valuable work experiences and references. • Connect with state, county, and city agencies to see about any initiatives for hiring students with disabilities or of the city or town offers youth employment opportunities • Check with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation • Educate parents about some of these options and encourage them to network and share opportunities they discover As part of each episode of Transition Tuesday, we provide additional tips, teacher tools, and resources related to the topics we cover. For this week’s bonus, Ten Sigma is providing a pdf that contains links to resources to help find jobs for students with special needs, which you can access by clicking the link at the top of this description. To learn more about Ten Sigma’s educational resources for teachers or parents, please visit our website http://tensigma.org and you can also connect with us on social media at: Facebook -   / ten-sigma-1572734446323526   Twitter -   / ten_sigma   LinkedIn -   / ten-sigma   If you know anyone else who would benefit from the information we share in these videos, please share this video and invite them to visit http://transitiontuesday.org We hope you enjoyed this episode and that you use this information to help find employment for people with disabilities.