Re-thinking vocational education and training: creating opportunities for workers with disability in open employment

There are over one billion people across the world with some form of disability, representing more than 15 per cent of the world’s population (World Health Organisation 2016). The focus is on an examination of vocational education and training (VET) and workers with disability (WWD). VET programs are designed to deliver education that enable individuals secure employment (Weigel, Mulder, and Collins 2007) and promotes opportunities for individuals with a disability. We adopt a broad approach to disability as inclusive of intellectual, mental health, physical impairments and neuro diversity. Different types of disabilities are reported to impact on workers in various ways; people with a physical disability have impediments such as loss of a limb, musculoskeletal disorders (arthritis) and sensory disorders (multiple sclerosis) that impact on their everyday life (AIHW 2014). According to Fuller, Edwards, Procter and Moss (2002) a mental health disability affects ‘a person’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities’ (p.149), with the most severe symptoms being diagnosed as a mental/psychiatric illness, such as schizophrenia. An intellectual disability ‘is typified by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills’ (Schalock et al. 2007, 118) that impact on workers in various ways. In open employment there are numerous challenges such as discrimination (Harpur 2012) especially for those workers with intellectual disability and mental health issues. The ways in which WWD are included in a work setting and how they develop at work impacts upon their overall well-being. ‘Inclusion’ has been defined as ‘the degree to which an employee is accepted and treated as an insider by others in a work system’ (Pelled, Ledford, and Mohrman 1999, 1014). The World Report on Disability (World Health Organisation 2011) documents the prevalence of severe disability is increasing with over 110 million people experiencing acute difficulties in functioning. It is well documented that due to the severity of some disabilities and for most people with a disability they are underrepresented within the work force (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013; Salkever et al. 2007). In many countries, WWD have lower average incomes than the general workforce, as much as a 15–30 per cent difference in earnings (OECD 2009, 2010). Moreover, securing employment presents significant challenges for many people with disabilities (Donelly and Given 2010; Lewis, Dobbs, and Biddle 2013; Yang and Konrad 2011). This is despite the fact that many countries, such as JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & TRAINING 2019, VOL. 71, NO. 3, 339–349 https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2019.1638168