Type of Project: Funded project Joint project Transnational project
Include³ - Pathways towards inclusion – Transitions from Sheltered Employment for People with Intellectual Disabilities into the Regular Labour Market: Identification, Dissemination and Implementation of Good Practice in Europe

Objectives The aim of the project is to identify, disseminate and implement good practice on transitions from sheltered employment to the primary labor market in Europe. Innovative practical examples in the fields of vocational training, vocational guidance and transitions from sheltered employment to the primary labor market will be collected and subsequently evaluated with regard to transferable aspects. They serve as the basis for a new counseling method. The Include³-method enables counselors who are employed in sheltered workshops or work closely with sheltered workshops to match needs of people with cognitive impairments and needs of the labor market. The method will be written down in a curriculum and piloted in sheltered workshops. All project results will be made available free of charge on the Include³ website. Background One of the aims of sheltered workshops is to prepare people with disabilities for and support their transition to (supported) employment in the primary labor market. Nevertheless, many people remain in a sheltered workshop for a large part of their working life or even for the entire duration. This is especially true for people with cognitive disabilities. This means that the inclusion goals formulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD, Art. 27) and reaffirmed in a directive recently adopted by the European Parliament are being missed. To achieve the goal of (sustainable) transition, the needs of the person with disabilities and the requirements of the labor market must be matched. Counseling plays a central role in this, as it can identify the strengths, interests and training needs of the person seeking advice. At the same time, counselors who work for or in sheltered workshops maintain contact with employers and can serve as door openers. Guidance also helps to ensure that vocational training is tailored to the individual learning needs, skills and goals of the person with disabilities on the one hand and to the needs and (support) opportunities of the labor market on the other. Include³ will develop resources and a participatory curriculum in an inclusive and co-productive process in which guidance practitioners work together with people with intellectual disabilities, employers and vocational training professionals in workshops to create pathways from targeted training into sustainable and appropriate work in regular employment. The key mechanism is that through this process, vocational education is refocused in an individualized way to prepare for concrete labor market opportunities. Target groups Direct target groups: 1. Inclusion experts. This refers to all those who professionally support the process of training and labour market integration – for example, work educators in the workshops, supervisors of the integration services, rehabilitation counsellors and employment agencies (and parallel functions in other European countries). New possibilities for action are opened up to them through greater inclusion of the affected person’s perspective and through an approach that transcends functional boundaries. 2. People with intellectual disabilities who are currently or will in future be trained and/or employed in sheltered workshops. The inclusion in gainful employment to which they are entitled under the UNCRPD is to be made possible for them more effectively than before. They are listed as direct target group not only because they are to be the main beneficiaries of the proposed method, but also because they will be empowered to co-determine every decision along this process. Indirect target groups: 1. Students and teachers at the participating educational institutions, who benefit from the transferability of the experience gained in the development and implementation in teaching and research, and after completion in professional practice 2. Employers, who will benefit from the productive potential of people with intellectual disabilities (directly) (indirectly also from the inclusion of their perspective from the beginning) and will be able to fulfil their obligation to inclusive employment. 3. Employees in general, as experience has shown that increased inclusiveness generally contributes to the humanization of work.