Job Readiness

1
Job Readiness?

• Robert Elston
• Chief Executive

2
What is Job Readiness?

• Programs and services for people with
  disabilities have often focused on the concept of
  "job readiness", spending months and even years
  getting an individual "ready" for employment.
  However, one thing that I have found consistently
  is that professional "experts" are poor
  predictors of who will and won't succeed in
  employment.

3
I Struggled to Find A Definition

• It was easier to find much harder definitions
• For instance according to The Hitch Hikers Guide
  To The Galaxy The Almighty Answer to the Meaning
  of Life, the Universe, and Everything is of
  course
• 42

4
One-Stop Definition of Job Readiness

• Good Attitude
• Sense of Time Management
• Problem Solving Skills
• Conflict Resolution Skills
• Developed Resume andCan Speak to Experience
• Barriers Resolved (e.g. childcare,
  transportation)
• Can Speak to Criminal Record/ Substance Abuse
  Issues
• Stable Housing

5
But How does that work ?

• When you have a person with a learning disability
  who have spent their life in a day centre who
  have never been given the opportunity to work or
  find out what work is. How are they are going to
  get those very complex skills and prove those
  skills to a job coach he will play the part of
  their judge and jury of whether they could work

6
So after intensive research

• I went to the same place that they went to in the
  Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy to also ask them
  the real definition and was amazed to be told
• It was 22

7
Things I hear after 25 years of being in
Supported Employment

• This client is not job ready
• It is impossible to get this person a job
• We should be focussing on the easy to place
  clients
• Low Hanging Fruit
• Employers will not accept this person

8
The line in the sand
9
So What is good Practice

• Have good communication for your candidates
  remember.
• Communicating to convey information i.e.
  listening with curiosity an open mind when it
  is not your turn to talk henceconversing-to-conv
  ey. 
• Resist communicating with the emphasis on
  convincing the other that you are right hence..
  the goal is to convince - to be right. 
• Thom Rutledge 2002. 

10
Your Organisational Culture

• Little distinction between management, staff and
  job seekers, other than to respect individuality
  and remember who is the job seeker and who is the
  service provider.
• See past disability/label/diagnosis and focus on
  the value strengths of the human being.
• Treat job seekers with dignity respect at all
  times
• Resist making value judgements
• Nurture job seekers to foster self value and
  belief
• Educate regarding rights and responsibilities
• Provide appropriate empowering opportunities to
  encourage facilitate educated informed choices

11
Do

• Listen
• Spend quality time doing a person centred
  vocational profile
• That can include job tasters and time limited
  work experience
• Remember though it is about the right job
• Always think about career progression, do not
  think the first job is necessarily the job
• Always focus on the job match

12
Do

• Work closely with employers
• Work with their employees creating natural
  support
• Challenge funders and Government
• Shaping your service to meet their needs
• Seek alternative funding and strategies to enable
  your candidates to have real job choice and
  career progression

13
Dont

• Limit people options by your beliefs
• Force a candidate into any job
• Put a candidate in a job without a support
  strategy
• Put the needs of the organisation, before the
  persons wishes and needs
• Follow the herd

14
What supported employment has proved

• That providing the correct level of support and
  training is put in place then any person can find
  the job that is suitable for them. There has been
  numerous examples over 25 years that clients with
  the severest disabilities can gain and maintain
  employment.

15
What Supported Employment is

• Our model emphasise the aim of a real job and a
  regular salary. It is a shift away from train and
  place that focuses on Job readiness to Place and
  train that focuses on engagement with the
  employer to make the job possible

16
What Supported Employment is

• There is an inherent value base that sets apart
  supported employment agencies from many other
  employment methodologies. The assumption is that
  all persons have the capacity to work if
  appropriate, ongoing support can be provided.
  Anyone who is old enough and wants to work can

17
What Supported Employment is

• People who have labels of severe disability are
  not excluded from a service. The notion of job
  readiness is often discredited, as often it never
  focuses on the desire of the person who wants to
  work but the perceived ability to learn and
  retain information for employment. This means,
  especially for candidates with a learning
  disability, that they constantly have to pass
  assessment criteria before they can apply for
  employment.

18
What Supported Employment is

• It believes that the challenge for society is to
  fashion employment services that are truly
  inclusive, which focus on the individuals
  ability to perform as opposed to the disability.
  Appropriate support and competent training should
  be available for all candidates who wish to gain
  employment. If supported employment uses the
  place and train model and job coaches to
  appropriately train and support the candidate in
  the workplace then job coaching will negate the
  need for a candidate to be job ready.

19
What Supported Employment is

• The challenge for Governments is to channel the
  appropriate resources to mainstream place and
  train to allow all candidates with a disability
  can access employment. There have been many
  studies throughout Europe and America evidencing
  the position that Place and Train can and does
  gain jobs for people not considered job ready by
  other methodologies.

20
Conclusion

• Instead of worrying about job readiness, people
  should focus on "job matching" finding a job
  environment and description that suit the current
  interests, support needs, personality, and skills
  of the individual with a disability. Starting
  with the belief that anyone can work, provided
  that they have a job that's a good match, will go
  a long way towards assisting people with
  disabilities to find employment. Once people are
  done with their formal education, they are for
  the most part as "job ready" as they are going to
  be.

21
Lets Believe We Can Fly