The School To Work Project

School to Work aims to inspire, increase confidence and motivate students with disability to seek and find meaningful employment with the help and support of their family. This will be achieved through the delivery of a series of webinars and workshops, two conferences, and the development of resources

This is a three-year project funded by the Department of Social Services. It will run until June 2023. Together with Resourcing Inclusive Communities/Family Advocacy (NSW) and CRU – Community Resource Unit (QLD), we are working on a project to support young people with disability to engage with employment.

The project hopes to see the trend reversed on poor disability employment figures. We want people with disability, who have the desire and capacity to work, to have greater choice and access to the right supports to achieve their employment goals.

Work and contributing to society is important for everyone, and everyone can have a real job. School to Work will help your child with disability and your family build confidence to explore what work might look like for them. When work goals are set early in a child’s high school years, there are many potential benefits:

• developing a sense of belonging
• making connections and friends
• starting to find financial independence
• building a career.

The project consists of:

• 12 Introductory Webinars each year (2020, 2021, 2022)
• In-depth workshops for each cohort each year (2021, 2022, 2023)
• Two conferences: one in New South Wales and one in the Australian Capital Territory
• Development of resources to support families through this journey.

Please contact Fiona McIntosh for more information: fiona@imaginemore.org.au

Why Is Employment for People With Disability So Important?
People with disability have significant barriers to obtaining paid employment. Australia ranks 21 out of 29 in the employment of people with disability among OECD countries. The rate of NDIS participants in employment has remained at 21% throughout the life of the Scheme and only 41% of this group aged between 14 and 25 obtained paid employment in the open market.

The most recent NDIS employment outcomes data reported that people with Down syndrome and intellectual disability are most likely to be working in an Australia Disability Enterprise (ADE) rather than in open employment (NDIS 2018, Outcomes Report).

How Can We Change These Grim Statistics?
To improve these outcomes, a grassroots approach is needed.  Individual families must develop the vision, knowledge and capacity to support their children to plan early, harness the use of existing pathways in the school years and support their children to find and keep meaningful employment.