It’s the Best of Times, It’s the Worst of Times
December 1, 2008Book Club: The Decade After High School: A Parent’s Guide
December 1, 2008By Judith Thomas and Trevor Snow
In today’s economy, Job Developers and Career Counsellors need to be prepared to assist all job seekers, including those with disabilities. Due to the aging population and an increase in the number of persons with disabilities, we are encountering a different caliber of client than in previous years. Working for the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work for the past few years has shown us a different type of clientele than we first encountered. In 2006, the vast majority of our caseload was seeking entry level positions. Our Workplace Essential Skills Partnership (WESP) employment program has greatly evolved since then to serve a very different demographic. We have very few youth and are serving mostly highly educated and very experienced people. Many of them have a gap in their employment to allow for a grieving process and acceptance of their new reality as a person with a disability.
Although WESP is familiar working with clients of this calibre, the numbers are notably increasing. With this economic climate, WESP is expecting to see even more highly qualified job seekers with disabilities in need of professional employment guidance.
As well as evolving many new and innovative workshop segments aimed at middle management level, we have had to drastically revamp our whole intake process. Topics of key interest to our clients, in addition to the usual employment ones, are disclosure, human rights, and accommodation needs. We also have equity employers come in to talk to our participants so that the latter hear “straight from the source.”
The WESP team also recognized the need to focus on employers looking to hire people directly into non-entry level roles. In doing so, WESP required to better understand the specific needs of these employers and ensure to meet or exceed them.
WESP has had enormous success with building trusting relations with employers. This quote is from an interview with one of our successfully placed clients who now assumes a management role. “I came to the WESP program with unclear expectations, and from the intake process to the daily classes, I felt nothing but support and respect from all four members of the WESP team. They were able to help me rediscover the abilities I have to offer an employer and prepared me to deal with having a disability and going through the job interviewing process. From the advice and coaching of the job developers, I felt confident and able to answer whatever question the job interviewer asked.
Unemployed and disabled is a stressful and frustrating situation, and I cannot thank the WESP staff enough for their dedication and patience. I would not hesitate to recommend this program to any person with a disability seeking employment assistance.” Enough information has been gathered to adjust and modify WESP’s four-week workshops. The following outlines some of the workshop highlights to better prepare our clients for employment:
- Knowing your transferable skills and how to communicate them
- Knowing what you do not want and knowing what you do
- Getting the right attention from employers by demonstrating YOUR confidence
- Effective communication with employers – while at a job fair, during a phone interview, and during a face-to-face interview
- How to interview the employer, etc.
These seemingly minor changes have resulted in a steady increase in WESP hires. In fact, the program’s focus has now turned to promoting the service less to employers and more to job seekers with disabilities.
Judith Thomas is a qualified Career Development Practitioner who has worked with various employment programs. She has experience as a Program Facilitator, Job Developer, Workshop Presenter, Employment Counsellor, Intake Coordinator and Private Consultant. Judith highly values the work she does at the CCRW, assisting clients wiht disabilities to obtain meaningful employment. E-mail jthomas@ccrw.org.
Trevor Snow is a job developer for the WESP (Workplace Essential Skills Project) which assists disabled job seekers develop and hone their employment-seeking skills. E-mail tsnow@ccrw.org.