PROJECT

In 2018, the first Higher Education course for young people with IDDs (see bit.ly/3a3WgZD) started in Portugal (at the Higher School of Education – Polytechnic Institute of Santarém), an initiative that has mobilized civil society, the business world and the police makers themselves for this problem, and which needs to be further developed, not only in Portugal but in all Europe. In other European countries, other courses and initiatives have been developed for this public, however with low expression in what concerns the insertion in the labour market.

The Portuguese Government recently approved and published a law (law nº4/2019) regarding minimum number of employees with disabilities in companies with more than 75 employees, this law actually comes into force in the month of this project submission (February 2019). In this way, with non-formal methodologies, it is intended to develop competences in young people with IDDs disorders for insertion in the labour market, both as employees and as self-employed entrepreneurs with innovation and social concern.

This proposal is in line with the National and European challenges. In fact, the relevance of the project is that it matches OECD reports (e.g. OECD, 9 Feb. 2018), in which international experts insist that, while indispensable, the reinforcement of funds and the increased value of practitioners and institutions are not yet contributing consistently to innovation and productivity growth within the priority areas of social and labour inclusion. In spite of this, some of the priority areas and sectors are still in need of a genuine and adequate analysis, being scarce or lacking in initiatives to include young participants with intellectual disabilities in the labour market. The project will produce outputs that are innovative for its field, since it presents a unique training system that is specially adapted to students with IDDs and to the youth workers that work with them, a job network platform for enterprises and young graduates adapted to the needs of both employers and employees, and tools to help students to create and organize their CV, portfolios and other materials.

In terms of impact we expect this project to increase the awareness to this problematic and to increase the chances of this young students to enter the labour market. This is especially important, because it demonstrates the lack of attention being paid to young people with disabilities. Therefore, implementing this project will certainly raise the chances of them being more integrated in the society. We expect the project to remain sustainable, assuring that the developed content stays available and accessible long after the funding. Also, by maintaining the job platform network we hope to constantly increase the network of stakeholders (e.g. associations, enterprises, schools) that will keep the project sustainable. Lastly, with this project we hope to influence policy makers in creating state