Meaningful jobs for students with disability: From luck to business as usual

MEANINGFUL JOBS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY: FROM LUCK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL 2020 NCSEHE Equity Fellow David Eckstein Make tomorrow better.

CONNECTING EQUITY POLICY, RESEARCH & PRACTICE

NCSEHE

The NCSEHE provides national leadership in student equity, connecting research, policy and practice to improve higher education participation and success for marginalised and disadvantaged people.

“Targeted Fellowships address fundamental issues for student equity.”

NCSEHE Equity Fellows conduct high-impact studies to advance student equity research, policy and practice.

2019/20 EQUITY FELLOWS with Dr Cathy Stone, Prof. Sarah O’Shea and Prof. Sue Trinidad

2020 “My Fellowship NCSEHE investigated the provision of targeted EQUITY careers support for students with disability, FELLOWas well as barriers to service provision.”

MR DAVID ECKSTEIN

David Eckstein is a careers education consultant in the higher education sector, based at Swinburne University of Technology.

Access the final report online:

ncsehe.edu.au/publications/jobs-students-disability/

“

“

There’s nothing inevitable about exclusion.

Daniel Valiente-Riedl, General Manager, JobAccess

Students with disability remain consistently underrepresented in university graduate employment outcomes.

Compared to their mainstream counterparts, students with disability are more likely to be in jobs that don’t use the skills and knowledge they developed at university.

Universities have the opportunity to play a direct role in helping students with disability find and use their

professional voice.

Employers want disability-inclusive recruitment. Enabling students with disability to better understand their employability value will help shape tomorrow’s workforce.

TOP 4 CHALLENGES STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY EXPECT TO FACE GETTING THE WORK THEY WANT

55.9%

49.4%

Inaccurate assumptions about my ability

Being asked to share disability information with employers

46.4%

47.2%

Lack of work experience

Unconscious bias

By accessing their inner motivation and personal sense of purpose, students bypass imposed notions of disability.

LINK LIFE WITH LEARNING

AND DISCOVER

“DISABILITY IS THE LEAST INTERESTING THING ABOUT ME.”

We need to be on the same page as our students.

DO STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY KNOW THE WORK THEY WOULD LIKE TO GET AFTER UNIVERSITY? STAFF AND STUDENT RESPONSES

28.7%

STAFF - YES

68.7%

SwD - YES

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Students with disability value careers support from a range of areas.

BEST SOURCES OF CAREERS SUPPORT (STUDENT TOP 5 CHOICES) 43.3% Industry contact 36.0% Academic/teaching 35.2% University internship or placement office 32.4% Friends/peers 31.4% University careers office

All staff can use basic disability and specialist service awareness

to help students make the most of available support.

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Inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.

Collaboration makes it practical to take better, more strategic, advantage of the resources that wait at our fingertips.

WHAT IS NEEDED TO PROVIDE (OR PROVIDE MORE) CAREERS SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITY?

32.7%

35.3%

Staff training

More collaboration with external stakeholders

26.7%

More collaboration with internal stakeholders

Addressing systemic disadvantage needs systemic change AND targeted support.

People respond individually to disability. Disability labels don’t dictate capability OR career education need.

of 67.5% students don’t feel able to share disability information with employers.

THE MORE INVISIBLE THE DISABILITY, THE LESS LIKELY PEOPLE FEEL ABLE TO SHARE DISABILITY INFORMATION Low Vision/Blind

51.6%

48.4%

Hard of Hearing/deaf/Deaf 47.8%

52.2%

Physical disability

45.4%

54.6%

Acquired brain injury (ABI) 42.9%

57.1%

Intellectual disability

35.9%

64.1%

Specific Learning Disability 34.4%

65.6%

Medical condition

33.6%

66.4%

Neurological condition

33.2%

66.8%

Mental health condition

23.4%

76.5%

I prefer not to say

16.7%

83.3%

Total

32.5%

67.5% Yes

No

We need to unleash students’ careers thinking from the shackles of imposed disability by creating contexts for inclusion.

“

At my university, we meet the assessment criteria but we’re able to be who we want to be and study in the way that suits us regardless of our disability.

“

Student

“

I thought disability was going to stop me. Embracing it has allowed me to talk about it as, ‘this is how I manage’ instead of, ‘ this is how I struggle’.

“

Student

Students with disability have much to teach us about the careers support they need.

Universities, students and industry can work together to create change at a national level.

NCSEHE DIRECTOR PROFESSOR SARAH O’SHEA

“During complex and changing times, the NCSEHE Equity Fellows have exceeded all expectations to produce impactful and quality research for the equity field.”

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