Certificate in Supported Employment

Course details

This Level 7 course is a professional qualification targeted specifically at the needs of people working as job coaches and employment facilitators. It will provide:

• A detailed understanding of the social and legislative context in which the employment of marginalised groups takes place
• A formal grounding in the principles, processes and best practices of Supported Employment
• The skills and tools required to work effectively as a jobs facilitator for the good of service users

Successful completion of the course will provide you with the tools required to facilitate job seekers into work experience/job sampling and/or supported employment opportunities. You will also receive a Certificate in Supported Employment which is a QQI/HETAC Level 7 Special Purpose Award.

Learning Objectives

After successfully completing the course you should be able to:

• Explain the role of work in people’s lives and explore the traditional strategies for supporting people into or back to work
• Describe the structures and legislation that governs the employment of marginalised groups
• Explain what Supported Employment is, how it has evolved and what its core values and underlying principles are
• Describe the role and position of the service user in the evolution of Supported Employment and summarise possible future development paths
• Determine how your service compares to current best practices in supported employment
• Understand what a customer-driven person centred approach means and how this relates to the practice of Supported Employment
• Demonstrate an understanding of the core values and underlying principles of supported employment such as normalisation, social role valorisation and integration and inclusion.
• Describe the role of an employment facilitator
• Identify the key skills required by an effective employment facilitator
• Develop a Vocational Profile and Career Plan for a job seeker
• Identify the essential components of action plans and support plans
• Gather information for the completion of a Work-site analysis and identify examples of Natural Supports
• Develop a marketing strategy to achieve success in helping a person gain and maintain employment
• Use the principles of Systematic Instruction to train people for their roles
• Demonstrate the ability to identify and address learning needs within supported employment/vocational services at personal and interpersonal level
• Explore through practice, the role of the employment facilitator in supporting an individual as they seek, gain and maintain employment

Contents

This course is made up of two modules and two workshops. The modules will be predominantly online. The workshops will be events that will help you place what you have learnt in the context of your own practice. Discussion and the sharing of experiences are actively encouraged.

Unit 1: Supported Employment: An Overview

• Define employment
• The history of services for people with disability in Ireland
• Work and employment for people with disability
• The importance of being employed
• Working when you have a disability
• Previous work options for people with disability
• Sheltered workshops
• Factors that influence the emergence of supported employment

Unit 2: The Context of Supported Employment in Ireland

• Employment Legislation In Northern Ireland
• The Context of Supported Employment in the South of Ireland
• The Commission on the Status of People with Disability
• The NACTE Report: Challenges for The Millennium

Unit 3: Development of Supported Employment

• Supported Employment: The Beginning
• The Evolution of the Model of Supported Employment
• Individual Placement Models
• Supported Employment in the Present
• Trends for the Future Development of Supported Employment

Unit 4: Core Values & Underlying Principles of Supported Employment

• The ideological cornerstones of Supported Employment
• Underlying principles of Supported Employment

Unit 5: Essential Employment Facilitator Skills

• The role of the employment facilitator
• Skills for effective communication
• Person centred planning
• The role of person centred planning in Supported Employment
• Career planning
• Marketing
• Job analysis
• Analysis the work site culture & the environment
• Preparation for the first days at work
• Guidelines for facilitating decisions about support strategies
• Systematic Instruction
• Evaluating outcomes & supports

Assessment

You will need to undertake a project to complete the course. This will involve working with someone seeking work and supporting them through the first phases of supported employment. By doing this you will have the opportunity to perform your role in a highly supported environment where you have access to experts and fellow practitioners facing the exact same challenges/opportunities as you.

Qualification

The course is certified by the QQI/HETAC as a Level 7 Special Purpose Award (20 credits). Successful participants will receive a Certificate in Supported Employment.