Job Coaching Training : Place, Train, Maintain for people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). Erasmus Project

Project Title

Job Coaching Training : Place, Train, Maintain for people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID).

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Job Coaching Training : Place, Train, Maintain for people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID)

Employment rate is very low (0,009%) among youth with ID in Turkey. In Europe, people with ID are unemployed on a long-term basis and their employment levels and economic activity fall quite below that of even people with other types of disabilities. In Poland, very few are employed and there is no framework for supported employment. In Greece, although there is a greater access of people with ID in education and training, the families face with the relatively limited social and financial support, and there is also very limited access to employment. Thus, job coaching in the concept of supported employment can be considered a well-suited access to improve the sustainability in their jobs and facilitate the integration between the employers and co-workers without disabilities in the job environment. In this context, job coaching training may contribute the facilitation of their success in jobs that the people with ID are placed in.
Therefore, the aim of the project was to create the job coaching concept in Turkey, Poland and Greece, and train young university graduates as job coaching trainers.
The participants of the project are
1-Yeditepe University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Istanbul, Turkey-YU group
2-Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece-ATHEI-ILLL group
3-Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego Jozefa Pilsudskiego w Warszawie, Department of Physiotherapy, Poland-AWFJ group
4-Association of Down’s Syndrome, Turkey, Istanbul-Down’s Turkey Group

In this context, the main activities undertaken were as follows;
1-Under the hosting of Yeditepe University one workshops and one symposium were accomplished.
2-A web site (www.jobcoachingtr.com) was made in English and it is free on-line. The Turkish translation studies will be completed by the end of this year.
3-A transnational book titled with “Job Coaching for People with Intellectual Disabilities: Place, Train, Maintain the model for Turkey, Greece and Poland” (13 Chapters; 142 pages) was performed including the educational and social status of people with ID in the partner countries, job coaching actions should be taken to upgrade their vocational status in the community, and the case studies of youngsters assessed and placed or planed to be placed to jobs during the process of this project. It is free on-line through the web site of the project (http://jobcoachingtr.com/Jobcoaching/transnationalbook.html)
4-20 hard copies will be distributed between the partners by December 2016 as it was planned
5-An elective course titled with “PTR 264 Job Coaching Training: Place, Train, Maintain for People with Intellectual Disabilities – (2 2 3) 3ECTS” in Yeditepe University was opened and forty-two (42) students enrolled and completed the course. Ten students from Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego Jozefa completed the course for three days (18hrs). Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki opened the course for students who were all successful. Each course was embedded into the curriculum of the universities as electives, and prepared according to the Bologna Process but also according to the characteristics of the universities and cultural diversions of each country.
6- A Job Coaching Training Manuel (4 Sections; 41 pages) was made to guide the job coaches during the job coaching process (vocational profile, work site analyses of employee and employers etc.) for people with ID.
7-A scientific paper was prepared explaining the aim and structure and the achievements of this project and submitted to the British Journal of Occupational Therapy by August 2016.
8-The project was presented as two posters, first in the 5th National Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Congress in May 20-25, 2015 in Turkish, and then, in a national exposition in relation to accessibility and disability in Turkish and in English. A presentation of the project was performed in March 30, 2016 during the meeting organized by the International Office of the Yeditepe University regarding to the project preparations on Erasmus Plus.

Overall, we may conclude the job coaching training that the project team had in this project that was given to the project members provided them the required knowledge and skills to train job coaches in their home countries. Sixty-two undergraduate and graduate students who had the job coaching courses, in addition to the target groups joined to workshops and the symposium increased their knowledge and awareness on the training of job coaches for people with ID, locally, regionally, as well as in national and international level.

The Association of Supported Employment, Turkey was set as a result of this project is expected to continue to disseminate the knowledge and practice of job coaching activities for the sustainability of the outcomes of this project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 91615 Eur

Project Coordinator

YEDITEPE UNIVERSITY VAKIF & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki (TECHNOLOGIKO EKPAIDEFTIKO IDRYMA THESSALONIKIS)
• AKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FIZYCZNEGO JOZEFA PILSUDSKIEGO W WARSZAWIE
• Down Sendromu Dernegi