Employment for all
BY JIM HINSON
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation (NHVR), a Division of the New Hampshire Department of Education, is working on a local, regional, and national level to facilitate its customers’ transition from secondary and post-secondary schools to meaningful employment. Among its other duties, NHVR helps break down the barriers to employment by educating employers in solutions to disability-related issues and ensuring accessibility to their goods or services.
Business owners are discovering that Universal Design - which permits accessibility to anyone - is good for business, and persons with disabilities are far from a liability, but instead some of their most loyal employees and customers. This new perspective is opening doors for school-to-work programs that are drastically improving student transitions.
A significant barrier to employment for youth with disabilities has always been the lack of variety and frequency of applied opportunities essential for skill building, informing motivational interests, and accumulation of social ties and networks. Youth ineligible for long-term supports are especially at risk for underemployment. Delayed career choices lead to unmet educational prerequisites and/or unrealistic expectations.
In order to maximize the effectiveness of high school course selections, parents and students need to begin discussing potential options and career intentions during the eighth grade. While this may sound extreme, it allows time to guide the students’ choices, research their dreams to ensure a good fit, tailor their coursework, and seek accommodations. Parents and students need to look far into the future and work backwards to set interim goals.
Some of the biggest hurdles for students with disabilities to overcome in school are stereotypical prejudices, traditional Carnegie classroom hour requirements, and the schools’ limited resources.
Luckily, non-disabled persons are beginning to recognize persons with disabilities as their equals, and schools are beginning to reaffirm the value of practical experience. Students will be able to “test out” of certain classes by demonstrating proficiency in a list of required skills. This shift is further helping NHVR bridge the transitional gap between educators and employers.
During the high school years, students should look for as many mentoring situations as possible: tour companies that interest them, take advantage of job shadowing opportunities, and apply for internships. Because meeting with potential employers and discussing internship possibilities is especially effective in ensuring a successful transition from school to work, new transition scholarships are being designed to combine job specific education with on-the-job-training, which ensures that upon graduation, students already have the necessary skills to do the job they want, and have built a relationship with their future employer.
The students complete classes or employer training during their senior year of high school to learn pre-employment skills and competencies, then complete a period of paid on-the-job-training (OJT) after graduation.
One of New Hampshire’s first Transition Scholarship pilot programs begins September 2007 at the Highlander Inn in Manchester. Planning for the programs was done by Peter
Morgan, Highlander Inn owner; Lesleigh Grant, Campbell High School transition specialist; Rhonda Gregg, director of special services at Campbell High School; and Jim Hinson, NHVR primary point of contact for corporations and disability related issues.
Participants will learn the basics of the hospitality industry and, if they successfully complete the program, earn staff positions at the inn.
Transition scholarships allow NHVR to leverage community resources to supplement traditional education with person-centered applied learning situations that enable greater opportunities than secondary and postsecondary schools could provide alone. The key is to connect schools, organizations, and communities in working toward the same goal: employment for all.
For more information on transition scholarships, other mentoring opportunities, or the Inclusive Job Fair, please contact your Regional NHVR office, or call Jim Hinson, statewide program coordinator, corporate relations with the NH Department of Education - Vocational Rehabilitation, at (603) 271-7093.