1. Dr Sheena Bell, The University of Northampton
Welcome to SEN Employment Links: Working with Employers and Trainers to support Young People with Special Educational Needs/Disability into Employment (SENEL)
Good morning and welcome, everyone, to our SENEL event. I am delighted to be here in Kempton would like to thank my colleagues for this opportunity to speak to you and introduce the SENEL project.
We are honoured to welcome the major of XXX? Who has kindly sponsored this event and is here with us today.. Thank you so much for your support.
Before I do, I would like to thank Wolfgang, Maria, Klaus, and Stephane and all their colleagues for organising this wonderful event. I would also like to welcome all our SENEl partners who have travelled from far and wide across Europe to be here with us today. But of course I particularly want to welcome all of you here in the audience. Teachers, counsellors, lecturers.. And a special to the employers and the young people who are joining as at this event.
I do hope you enjoy the day and that everyone will find something here to help them with their own employment aspirations.
Dr Sheena Bell, The University of Northampton
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2. Being social Follow us on Twitter! Tweet about today! @SENEL_Europe
We are using this from of social media to reach as many people as possible all around the world. We have about 160 followers at the moment.
Please can everyone who has a Twitter account follow us!
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3. What is SENEL? 2 year project - September 2015-August 2017
Co-funded by the European Commission Erasmus+ Programme – (Key Action 2 Strategic Partnership)
Focus – improving employment opportunities for young people with special educational needs and disabilities
The Special Education Needs Employment Links (SENEL) project is funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Key Action 2 programme.
This project, for the exchange of good practice, aims to support young people with SEND (Special educational needs and disabilities) move successfully from vocational training (VET) and further education (FE) into employment.

4. Aims
Meet needs of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) moving from vocational training/FE
Improve potential for transitions to employment
Engage with employers to meet recruitment/workplace needs
Provide up-to-date information for employers about positive gains which can be made by encouraging and supporting young people with SEND into the workplace
Make an impact on youth unemployment
These are the key aims of the SENEL project

5. Partners
Activate Learning, (AL) Oxford, UK. (An organisation consisting of three Further Education (VET) colleges, two technical colleges and a marketing consulting company.)
University of Masaryk, (UM), Brno, Czech Republic.
AGAPO, Czech Republic. (A non-governmental organization which has been active in the South- Moravian Region for the last 10 years. The organisation´s mission is to support employment of people with disability or social disadvantage and thus allow them to live normal lives.)
Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (JAMK), Finland. This University of Applied Sciences includes a Teacher Education College, which offers teacher education, study counsellor and special needs teacher programmes for vocational training teachers.
FAIDD, Finland: a national organisation with experts which promotes equality and participation for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and others who need support with learning, understanding and communicating. It also develops services and does research in the field.
Katholische Jugendfürsorge der Diözese Augsburg (KJF) Germany: (A non-governmental organisation active in the fields of child and youth services, vocational education and medicine) including a private Education College: Private Fachakademie für Heilpädagogik (PFH), for professionals in the field of Special Education, training and educating at post-secondary level (All students provided with a graduated progression in the field of Child and Youth services ), and the Berufsschule St. Georg zur sonderpädagogischen Förderung Kempten (BSG), a training college for young people with SEN.
Please note – I will NOT READ ALL THIS OUT
I WILL SAY:
Here are descriptions of all the SENEL partner organisations

6. United Kingdom (English)
The countries/languages
Czech Republic
Finland
Germany
United Kingdom (English)
AS you can see we are four countries with different languages and unique cultures. : England, Finland, the Czech Republic and Germany.

7. We would love to speak to you
We would love to speak to you. This is our team and most of these people are present today – please find us and talk to us! If we don’t speak German we will find someone to help us translate.

8. Here are the logos of all our varied organisations
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9. SENEL website
making the products available to the widest possible global audience
disseminating the project
long term, sustainable impact
We have a website and we hope that you will visit it and give us your feedback. We will be improving and adding to this this year.
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10. SENEL PRODUCTS FOR YOU! Mini-guide for Employers
Exhibition of Good Practice
Mini-guide for Employers
Passport to Employment
The project is producing these freely available materials to support students with SEND as they move into employment.

11. 1. Exhibition of good practice
Fist our exhibition which you will see today

12. The exhibition
Free materials to show good practice in employing young people with SEND
Provides example case studies of real employees with SEND
Posters (PDFs) and videos
Can be downloaded and adapted
Offers employers and workplace training staff a resource for training, consciousness raising …
Adaptable for many situations
Has already been used in all partner counties in a number of settings

13. 2.Mini-Guide for Employers of Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities3
Secondingly our mini-guide fo employers

14. The Mini-Guide
introduces the benefits of employing young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
provides example case studies of real employees with SEND
uses the language of employability and skills
examples of simple adjustments to help young people with SEND succeed in the workplace
offers employers and workplace training staff a way to reflect on their cultures, policies and practices
not everyone with a SEND fits into a neat label or category

15. 3. Passport to Employment for Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Thirdly, we are preparing this new product for you

16. The Passport
will offer students with SEND and FE/workplace training staff a tool to track and document students’ abilities and skills as well as their needs.
will be a flexible tool used to develop continuously updated guidance throughout their career
will be a portfolio of evidence during the transition from education to employment
will clearly and succinctly present strengths
will encourage a discussion of reasonable adjustments at job interviews

17. The Passport
will offer trainers and counsellors and young people with SEND access to a unique, interactive and fully downloadable on-line guidance and self-advocacy tool:
will help its users describe their skills, competences and qualities as well as their support needs.
will be a web based interactive tool
will be available as a printable version (PDF format)

18. Thank you for listening!
So now I have given you a short introduction to SENEl. please do enjoy the programme that Wolfgang and colleagues have prepared for you and have a gret day

19. DISCLAIMER
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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