Supporting European SMEs in the Employment of People Living with Disability or with a History of Mental Illness: a Pilot Development in the Furniture Manufacturing Industries Erasmus Project

Project Title

Supporting European SMEs in the Employment of People Living with Disability or with a History of Mental Illness: a Pilot Development in the Furniture Manufacturing Industries

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

As stated above Article 27 of the UNCRPD and its Optional Protocol has 11 directives to secure “the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others” while the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 identified 8 areas for action for the elimination of barriers, two of these being ‘Employment’ along with ‘Education and training’. However while there is intent, data suggests that more needs to be done if the barriers to employment for disabled people are to be eliminated. Currently good work is being done to enhance the training received by disabled people so they have the skills required to contribute, but there is a significant need to ensure that SMEs can face the directives with confidence, if the changes for disabled people are to take place.
SupportAbility was created in order to address the gap in resources that currently prevents SMEs in the furniture and woodworking industries being full contributors to the aims of the UNCRPD. Its core aim was to provide resources to ensure that people living with disability can secure long-term employment through SMEs being able to supply the support they require from within the workplace. To this end, the project sought to gain access to available resources and construct new ones for SME Directors, Managers and employees to enable access to information needed when employing people with disability.
SupportAbility had 6 partner organisations, from 4 countries (UK, Spain, Portugal and Turkey) that brought a diverse experience to deliver the objectives including working with SMEs, implementing VET, advocates for disabled people, creating e-Learning activities and analysing social research.
The method for the project was founded on providing 5 substantial outputs as resources that assisted in delivering the objectives and are as follows:
1. A report on the current state of affairs for furniture industry SMEs in employing disabled people with an analysis of their needs.
2. A database providing resources for SME managers that can assist them in employing disabled people.
3. A User Guide to assist them in navigating and applying the database.
4. A curriculum for the training of mentors to support disabled people in the workplace. A set of learning activities was also developed.
5. An e-Learning course that can be implemented through a specific e-Learning platform.
(Ref: All outputs are on the dissemination platform (DP))
The work was undertaken in the order above and the work on each output informed the development of the next.
In order to achieve the outcomes above, the partners made contact with over 100 organisations from across the sector in which they work and engaged with circa 500 stakeholders (Annex 1) in order to reach the objectives. The stakeholders mainly came from partner countries and took part in surveys, learning activities other eve and events. They also input into work for outputs 1, 2, 3 and 4.
A key outcome was the creation of a curriculum and e-Learning VET course for the implementation of the curriculum developed (Ref: Outputs 4/5 DP). It took place in the form of a pilot which comprised two week face to face input and e -learning content in the interim. In the application 12 furniture industry employees were to train as mentors. However during the project, partners realised the special value of training for those people in organisations that need to implement the procedures, to support the employment of people with disability, including learning from their peers. For this reason and economic issues affecting SMEs the project partners proposed to the National Agency a change to the attendance from Spain. The proposal was accepted on the 26th February 2018 and 6 VET training students (beyond legal age) in the furniture sector attended, together with (initially 5 and for the second week 4 (due to force majeure issues) staff from UK furniture organisations. The partners believe this retained the principles and context of the activity whilst making the outcomes of the project more sustainable.
The partners expect that within furniture industry SMEs, there will be a significant increase in their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in their approach to recruitment. The outputs exist to enable SMEs to move past seeing the disability in a candidate for employment, so they can engage with them as part of a team while having the confidence to deal with any special needs systemically.
Beyond the project’s lifetime, SupportAbility can become an example of a practical implementation of the ethical position stated within directives like UNCRPD and the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020. In this context, SupportAbility can bring an increased inter-regional and transnational cooperation between public authorities in their VET commitment to supporting SMEs seeking to maximise accessibility to their world of work in all its forms. At grass root level the learning activity challenged the Spanish students career thinking.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 324357 Eur

Project Coordinator

BFM LIMITED & Country: UK

Project Partners

• SINOPSPASTIK COCUKLAR DERNEGI
• Asociación de Profesores de Formación Profesional en Madera y Mueble
• APLOAD Lda
• ASOCIACION EMPRESARIAL DE INVESTIGACION CENTRO TECNOLOGICO DEL MUEBLEY LA MADERA DE LA REGION DE MURCIA
• Searchlighter Services Ltd