TAD Activities
Proceedings of Transnational Meetings
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TAD ActivitiesProceedings of Transnational Meetings
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Workable, a national consortium of non-profit and commercial organisations, runs placement programmes for Disabled under and post graduate students who are seeking positive work environments for temporary and permanent employment.
In the UK a disabled graduate is four to six times more likely to be unemployed
compared to a non-disabled graduate.
Workable organises work placements for students during their third year but does
also place some students in work during their second year of study.
There are difficulties in identifying the potential users of the service, as
many disabled students do not wish to be identified, partly because they do
not want to be 'labelled' and potentially affect job opportunities.
Most of the students come through referrals from Disability Advisors,
Student Services, and placement tutors. It does appear that the placement/careers
service within Universities is not geared to supporting disabled students
needs nor have the awareness of the issues involved.
Workable works with a range of employers from, for example the BBC, Manchester
Airport and Marks & Spencers, to local Chambers of Commerce and Small to Medium
sized enterprises (SMEs).
It has been noticeable that it is easier to facilitate short term placements
for students, this allows the employer of overcome worries, fear and other issues
that they may have in relation to taking on a disabled worker. To some extent the
biggest barrier perceived by employers is that fact they do not know what to expect.
Within this area there a number of themed projects looking a particular job sectors, hence there is a Legable, Artsable, Mediable and Workable (placements within the Civil Service).
Workable also carries out pre-vocational training for clients, many of which
are under confidant or have little experience of the formal job market.
For example, interview techniques are explored, this is an important area
many disabled students are unsure whether to disclose their disability or
how to ensure that it does not become the focal point of the interview.
To co-ordinate and disseminate our work through the student population Employment
Action Days are promoted, at which issues such as interview techniques, CVs &
resumes, and disclosure of disabilities are explored.
In this area we work locally with Access Summit, which provides assessment and adaptive technologies for disabled students attending the four Universities in Manchester, who will refer students to our placement scheme.
It is important that we develop links with other programmes to support job opportunities such as Placement Services University of Manchester Science and Technology Institute (UMIST) and the Work Experience Bank (provides jobs on-line and opportunities locally and nationally).
We are now looking into the areas of self-employment and the environmental changes that are occurring in the workplace with the ideas of flexible scheduling etc.
Workable has been developing transnational links in Austria, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Germany, with exchange schemes and placements throughout Europe. This scheme is currently to end in April, although we are in the process of developing other links to carry on this work.
The LTC is run by the Workers Educational Association (WEA) and does not
have a college base, rather it sends tutors out into the community or workplace.
The WEA has formed various alliances and partnerships, for example, with the
Trade Union movement, which is why the LTC is based in a trade union training
college - General Municipal & Boilermakers (GMB) Union in Manchester.
Within these alliances there is project work and collaboration with small
enterprises.
The basic aim of the WEA is to provide training and education to people who do not access provision through traditional providers. Although there has always been concern about access for people traditionally excluded, disability has not in the past been a major focus within our work. In the past the focus has been more linked to social and economic barriers, although there are now a number of projects working in this area, for instance, with the Manchester Deaf Centre and training in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
We also deal with small to medium enterprises (SMEs) through providing information on technology use etc., although there is not specific mention of disabilities, the WEA generally tries to ensure maximum access to training and a persons employability.
Apart from SMEs, the work in the communities has traditionally focused on the role of women and their difficulty in accessing employment and training. Rather than expect them to attend college etc., we take laptop computers into community centres and allow the users to take them home.
The definition of SME covers a wide range of organisations, for our work they do not need to be business enterprises. It is just as important to improve local community groups ie., a group organising childcare facilities in Hattersley (a local council estate characterised in the low income sector), as it is SMEs.
By going to out to them also plays an important role in the community having to organise facilities etc., and serves to develop a stronger community.
The work carried out nationally across the UK varies from area to area, from urban poverty to rural poverty, each with its own particular requirements and needs, but basically marginalised people with little access to education etc. These projects include a wide range of people including disabilities, for example, people with visual impairments, and mental health returners.
The important area to stress is that of our partnerships with other organisations since the WEA doesn't have buildings for training but relies on these partnerships to provide these facilities.
An example of a project in partnership with a College and SMEs is being run at
St. Helens College in the NW of England.
The project is looking at the use and training of satellite navigation and
messaging for small road transport firms, to allow greater flexibility and
delivery within their businesses. The large transport firms can afford these
systems and the required training of staff.
The role of Telework and Teletraining is not central to our training programmes although we do provide distance learning. The reason for this is in that our philosophy is that people come together and learn - which sets up a contradiction for learning alone.
Yet our International Study Circles, usually 8 people from other countries
such as Zambia and the Philippines , will use 'teletraining' since the course
originates in Manchester. These people will probably have access to one computer
and use that as a shared resource and work individually from materials
printed off. Although the idea of distance learning is used it is still
important to bring the people together.
In the past these types of study has focused on computer skills but we are
in the process of developing other course materials, and the software to support
the downloading etc., in economics and history, for example.
This approach will be different than the Open University (OU) which has traditionally been the supplier of distance learning in the UK. It has been estimated that 95% of an OU course is study/learning alone but they also insist on some collective learning, especially since it has been shown that collective learning is more efficient and productive than in isolation.
Although our courses will be downloadable our target groups are economically poor and will have restricted access to computers, rather they will come together in community centres to access the materials.
The UK has never had the same concept of industrial confederations etc., where as in Spain the Industrial Confederations are beginning the process of taking over the provision of training and re-training.
In the UK the situation is somewhat different, with the tradition of a private sector view. This approach is that training is the responsibility of individuals or the state, therefore the provision of training is not through industrial associations but through Colleges and Training & Enterprise Councils (TECs).
The European model of training and associations, whether the North or South European
model, does not really occur in the UK. Instead there is a very sharp divide
between private firms and state training provision.
The Trade Union movement, by and large, has not provided training for employment
but rather training on being a trade unionist. There is now recognition that
TUs have to provide members with the skills to continue and/or find employment.
There has been a change of culture towards training, partnerships with private
firms and the use of new technologies. For example, the project with St Helens
College and the use of satellite technology may well have been seen as a threat
to employment in the past. Whereas now it is viewed as protecting employment,
improving conditions and improving the employability of the workforce.
The concept of Social Enterprises does not really occur in the UK, the tradition is more owner/worker, the idea of mutual ownership has somewhat become unfashionable. The idea of co-operatives does not have a good reputation although there are the beginnings of moves back to the idea of social enterprises.
A good example of a successful co-operative is Soft Solutions in Manchester, started approximately 15 years ago, who provide Internet access to mainly social enterprises and community organisations. They are run as a business and works upon the income generated from their clients, in the past co-operatives have tended to collapse as the 'business ethic' was frowned upon and actively ignored.
However the shift towards more of a social enterprise model is really concentrating on increasing the capacity of individuals and communities to find employment, rather than setting up actual co-operatives or enterprises.
This has an historical footing, taking the WEA which was established in 1905, the training provision was aimed at excluded people but perhaps not really trained and educated them for employment. Within the last 10 years it has become an explicit aim of training to aim for employment and related skills, for example, the return to learning programme.
The move to providing employment related training has also come from the need to
meet SME demands for training. In the past SMEs received money to pay for the costs
of having workers trained at local colleges, but this ignored the difficulties
and reluctance to release workers from work time.
For example, Salford College would provide training to a local SME over a
one-year period, but the worker would have to attend over that time period. Also
SMEs have very particular focused needs which will vary from enterprise to enterprise.
There were additional difficulties in targeting the financial support at the
relevant areas of the economy.
At present LTC is working on pilot projects to develop and deliver tailored packages to reflect the individual needs of the SME.
Back to Proceedings of Meeting March 99
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