JobCircuit innovative holistic guidance model for integration of people with disabilities on the European Labour Market Erasmus Project

Project Title

JobCircuit innovative holistic guidance model for integration of people with disabilities on the European Labour Market

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

People with disabilities (PwD) are the most disadvantaged group with regards to labour market inclusion in Europe. In accordance to the 2012 last official data of the EU Commission, in Portugal PwD were 875 000 (more than 42% unemployed), in Turkey they were about 8 500 000 (more than 80% unemployed), in Bulgaria 681 000 (more than 60% of them unemployed), in Belgium 1 125 000 (more than 72% unemployed), in Slovenia they were 172 000 (more than 89% were unemployed, in Lithuania 307 000 (more than 77% unemployed). In 2017-2019, the situation became better but far of being positive.

It was one of the key areas of both European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 and Europe 2020 to allow full accessibility to education and to the labour market for people with disabilities. This corresponded to the annual priority related to increase employability of the EU Commission listed in ET2020 & Official Journal of the European Union, C 72/5 . From this was evident that still in many European countries and beyond, accessibility to the labour market is not given yet due to the lack of suitable and powerful implemented support concepts and schemes.

Taking into account existing career guidance services around Europe – supported employment, sheltered employment, work-based mentoring etc. is still evident that they cannot reach, as a final result, the improvement of the employment rates of people with disabilities.

That’s why our consortium is offering a novel holistic guidance model called “JobCircuit” which combines:
– individual support based on person centered approach
– vocational guidance towards job readiness and applying for a suitable job
– on the job follow up and support
– job rotation
– strengthening employers’ engagement

JobCircuit methodology focus on strengthening cooperation among the labour market representatives, the educational institutions and the social services providers, with the goal of enabling and creating work possibilities for people with disabilities. The main goal of this methodology is to offer to PwD a complete support programme to achieve relevant work experience and become employed. JobCircuit methodology is a combination of individual follow-up services and a job rotation concept. The target group is constituted by PwD who need relevant work experience. JobCircuit supports the target group through short periods of different job activities. PwD can try different companies or different jobs within the same company, i.e., they experience different job possibilities during the job rotation. As a key differentiating factor in relation to other working methodologies with people with disabilities, the job rotation or circulation stands out as an approach not used in most of the partner countries and which is innovative in the European area. The impact of job rotation was very important for reaching sustainable retention of the job of the employees with disabilities.Skills and competencies of PwD were improved through the work linked to vocational training and apprenticeship and follow up support.

This model strengthened the knowledge, skills and competencies of career counsellors, job coaches, mentors etc. in terms of successful provision of guidance and support to their disadvantaged from the labour market clients, who from other hand improved skills and competencies via work-linked guidance and support which are relevant to the labour market needs.

JobCircuit methodology was pre-implemented with success in Portugal, Turkey, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Belgium and Lithuania taking into account national and cultural differences of all involved partner countries in accordance of the current labour market needs and legal framework. Project consortium involved VET institutions, national inclusion institute, vocational rehabilitation centres, counselling bodies and governmental institutions. Piloting phase with target groups was carried out: 80 mentors/counsellors, 124 job-seekers with disabilities, 45 employers and 27 training and social services providers were effectively involved, exceeding the established goals. Feedback was very positive.

JobCircuit measurement impact tool supported the evaluation process that career guidance and service providers conducted at the end of the service provision to clients with disabilities. By improving the quality of service provision and measuring the impact of the JobCircuit model implementation within the career guidance service providers, we ensured better results, benefits and best value for PwD and relevant stakeholders.

The concrete intellectual outputs of the project were:
IO1: Manual for policy liaison and incorporation of the JobCircuit method for career counselling of people with disabilities
IO2: JobCircuit guidance model – practical manual for career guidance providers
IO3: Measurement impact tool of the JobCircuit model
IO4: Manual “Training the trainers” on JobCircuit model
IO5: Interactive JobCircuit learning portal

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 260845,44 Eur

Project Coordinator

Consultis – Consultoria Empresarial, Unipessoal Lda. & Country: PT

Project Partners

• UNIVERZITETNI REHABILITACIJSKI INSTITUT REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE-SOCA
• Associação Portuguesa de Emprego Apoiado
• Rumo, Cooperativa de Solidariedade Social, Crl
• MARIE CURIE ASSOCIATION – MCA
• International Association for Research and Development of Vocational Education and Training
• VIESOJI ISTAIGA VALAKUPIU REABILITACIJOS CENTRAS
• PHOENIXKM BVBA