On Tuesday 29 October 2024, the Polish Multiplier event for the JOBS4ALL project took place at the premises of Janina Porazinska Special Education School Complex in Ignaców, Poland. The meeting was attended by 30 people – representatives of the District Employment Office, the Vocational Activity Centre, directors of educational institutions from the Mińsk district that conduct vocational training for students with disabilities, psychologists, pedagogues, adult YPwDs and trainers.
The presentation of the project results began with an introduction to the employment scene mapping tool. Then, focus groups meetings were discussed, presenting the conclusions. As a result of these meetings, each country produced an infographic that presented the results in an accessible way and a joint statement document, also the result of these focus group meetings, was produced at an early stage, which identified challenges and recommendations to improve digital accessibility and increase participation for YPwDs. Finally, the working document with key findings, lessons learnt and recommendations was also presented together with the guidelines and procedures for Employment hubs.
The participants then familiarised themselves with all the training materials that the consortium had developed for each of the target groups concerned. The Competence Framework – Syllabus was presented and its elements were discussed. Then the JOBS4ALL Training Pack was presented, which concerns three selected professions for YPwDs as well as the capacity packs for youth workers and employers. The project coordinator focused here on people with intellectual disabilities as employees. At this point, the facilitator pointed to the advantages of people with disabilities as employees, with specific examples from video interviews prepared for the project.
Participants were informed that these packs could be found on the e-learning platform, which was also presented in detail. An important element was the presentation of the visual aspect, as these materials are aimed at people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. Hence, the right font, size and appearance of the text was essential to make it easier to use for YPwDs. Next, the guests were introduced to the Open Badges, which were an integral part of the entire training program as they provided an incentive for YPwDs and allowed trainers to objectively assess the skills they have acquired.
The e-learning platform has already been referred to more than once during the meeting, so the speaker moved on to the presentation of the VR tool. The project is very innovative and introduces the use of a gamification tool to YPwDs professional training. The necessary equipment for the simulation was presented and short videos recorded during the game were shown.
The final part of the presentation focused on the fourth project result. Its first part involved the creation of a Policy Advocacy Strategy to ensure and enable appropriate labour market dialogue to increase YPwDs employability. The main point, raised by all partner countries was about young people with disabilities being accompanied both in the process of looking for a job but also when they go to work.
A declaration to the European Parliament signed by all partners was discussed, which contained four main points: a commitment to promote equal participation in the labour market, recognition of the long-term benefits of embracing diversity and inclusion, a commitment to actively cultivate inclusive jobs and striving to contribute to a fairer labour market.
The Memorandum of Cooperation was also presented between representatives of the labour market, business stakeholders, youth organisations, public and private organisations as well as the structured dialogues, where each partner organisation organised meetings with the three target groups. The first dialogue took place at the local level between YPwDs and trainers while the second at the regional level between employers and politicians. Finally, the results of the pilot trainings in Poland were presented with YPwDs, trainers and employers.
The invited guests observed the presented results of the project with interest, and some of them expressed their opinion loudly, noting that such a project and its achievements are particularly important for the Polish labour market. The invited psychologists noted that the project is particularly important from the point of view of socialization of people with intellectual disabilities after graduation. A very positive effect of the meeting was the willingness to employ one of the students, which was expressed by the trainers working in the vocational activity center. At the end, a video message from the project coordinator from Greece was shown to the participants and various small gifts such as pens and writing pads bearing the JOBS4ALL logo were handed out to everyone together with the project leaflet.