The Irish Association of Supported Employment (IASE) was established in 1994. It is a national voluntary organisation promoting supported employment for people with disabilities throughout Ireland.
Its goal is to provide work for people with both intellectual and physical disabilities for those who want to be employed irrespective of their disabilities. The supported employment allows people with disabilities to work in an environment where their disabilities are catered for and understood.
One if its most important initiatives is the job shadow placement day which took place this year on April 24th in which more than 500 employers participated.
Last year the IASE managed to persuade the Taoiseach to participate in job shadow initiative day which garnered a lot of publicity and also persuaded other employers to come on board.
Mr Kenny was shadowed by Michael Dunleavy, a client of Employability Mayo and by John Hynes, a client of Menni Supported Services. He was also shadowed by a young man called Cian O’Connor (not the showjumper).
There have been some 1,700 placements to date. Most Government department and companies such as Boots and Penneys participated in the initiative.
IrishJobs.ie, one of the country’s biggest online recruiters, sponsored the initiative. Its managing director, Jane Lorigan, said: “We hope that by participating in initiatives like job shadow day, employers will have the opportunity to see the valuable contribution that an individual with a disability can make to an organisation and the positive impact it can have on everyone involved.”
Those clients interested in taking part do so through supported employment. They are assessed by a job coach from their local supported employment agency who will match them with an employer.
Opportunity
The national job shadow initiative is designed to give people with disabilities an opportunity to get a close-up look at the world of work for one day or one week in April each year, enabling them to discover and learn about the skills and education required to compete and succeed in the workplace.
It works by allowing people with disabilities an opportunity to shadow a work place mentor as they go about their daily duties.
IASE national chairperson Teresa Mallon said the initiative is now in its sixth year and has made a big difference to the perception of disability in the workplace.
“One of our goals is to promote awareness of people with disabilities here in Ireland,” she said. “We put the emphasis on awareness-raising for employers. That’s our key objective.
“The purpose is to get employers involved for one day so they have an opportunity to dip their toes in the water into getting involved in a more inclusive workplace.
“We do it in a very safe and structured way and we have the back-up of a successful job-coaching service. We want to promote nationally the positive contribution that people with disabilities can make to the workplace and to promote more inclusive recruitment policies.
“From the perspective of people with disabilities, they get an opportunity to look into the world of work for a day, to see what the skills sets and the training requirements are for that particular job.
“One of the very positive outcomes resulting from the job shadow day is that even if employers are not able to offer a good employment position to somebody, they have built up a very positive relationship with the disability organisation that is organising the placement.
“Resulting from that, other people with disabilities have got an opportunity to have work placements throughout the year. That has been a very good outcome too.” When the initiative started out, it was not intended to be a job-placement service, but for a few lucky participants it turned out to be that.
One of the successful participants was Anne Marie Condron from Tallaght who is supported by Cheeverstown House.
Anne Marie, who is now in her 30s and grew up in Tallaght, has attended Cheeverstown House Employment Support Services (Chess) since she left school.
She volunteers at a number of places including a playschool in Tallaght and the coffee shop at Chess and already works one day a week at Dunnes Stores in The Square shopping centre, Tallaght.
Familiar ground
She was on familiar ground when she took part in the job shadow day at the customer service desk in The Square.
They were so impressed with her skills that they offered her a paid job by lunchtime and her picture has gone up on the wall among the other staff at The Square.
The IASE will host the 2013 European Union of Supported Employment Conference taking place between June 11th and 13th in Croke Park.
The theme for the conference is “Building an Inclusive Europe through Supported Employment” and the conference will showcase the many best-practice initiatives and developments taking place across the world.
