1. Jobs Strategy for Young People with Disabilities Gunn-Elin Åsgren Norwegian Directorate of Labour and Welfare gunn-elin.asgren@nav.no

2. Jobs Strategy for People with Diasabilities The vision: Everyone who is able to must be given the opportunity to participate in working life The main Target-group: Young People under the age of 30 A reinforcement of the IW-agreement: to increase the employability of people with disabilities.

3. Prevent young people with disabilities from being permanently excluded or relegated from working life. Testing various initiatives and drawing lessons learnt from attempts made along the way. Promote a close cooperation with the social partners and relevant organisations for people with disabilities. Develop new knowledge on effective means and methods The ordinary labour market should be both the goal and means of gaining employment The Strategy has a comprehensive and long- term perspective and is based on several goals.

4. The low percentage of young people with disabilities in employment is a loss to society as a whole and to the individual. The employment rate among people with disabilities is also low in Norway compared with the other OECD countries. Why a separate strategy?

5. Socio-economic losses – an estimate Five per cent increase in the employment rate among young people with disabilities, would provide a socio-economic gain of around BNOK 3 over a ten-year period.

6. Employment rate among young persons with diabilities vs the others The youngest age group 15-24 years 38,8 per cent for - 51,8 percent. The age group 25-39 years was 53.9 per cent - 83.5 per cent

7. Are there any changes? After several years of steady decline, on the whole there has been a slight rise in employment of young people, or young adults with disabilities. Especially among young disabled women. This rise in employment rate is not seen in the population as a whole.

8. Transition education/work Around 3,000 young people under 30 years of age with disabilities do not continue with their education after completing compulsory schooling (2012) We do not know how many of these need employment-oriented assistance from NAV.

9. The drop-out rate Seven of ten students have completed an upper secondary school education within five years. Only 57 per cent complete vocational education and training, compared with 83 per cent in the general studies programmes. The drop-out rate in upper secondary schools is higher among boys than among girls. While 76 per cent of girls complete their education, only 66 per cent of boys do so. From 2008 to 2013 the percentage of students that completed an upper secondary education increased by 2 percentage points.

10. Four barriers are identified as preventing people with disabilities from gaining employment 1. Discrimination barrier 2. Cost barrier 3. Productivity barrier and information 4. Attitudinal barrier.

11. All measures that exist now in Norway is available for Employment Strategy. It is also established some new The mentoring scheme Functional assistance at work Workplace support coaches Competence programme Facilitation subsidy Increased number of labour market programme places

12. Implementation Organised through 40 new positions established in 2011/ 2012. Responsible for regional (19. counties) implementation of the strategy. However, the strategy applies to the whole of NAV. Workplace support coaches focus on assisting potential employers together with the IW-suportcentres The County Coordinator has the practical responsibility for coordination of development of services and implementation of the Job Strategy in each county.

13. What do we know about the young people with disabilities? Experiences A lot of this youth have mental health problems. They may have interrupted education They may have gaps in their CV. They may have little experience to master new situations. They may have poor social skills.

14. Work Assessment Allowance (AAP) - Recipients under 30 year, August 2013. Cause of occupational rehabilitation Mental health problems Muscular and skeletal diseases Other diseases Muscular and skeletal diseases Other diseases Cause of occupational rehabilitation Percent- age of all Registered cause

15. Work Assessment Allowance. Under 30 year Primary High school not completed High school, completed Higher education up to 4 y Higher education over 4 y Unknown Self Registered education

16. Young people with diabilities - Characteristics They are young! They are as different as any other. They have little experience of working life. They go through one of the biggest and most important transitions in life. They meet a workplace perhaps for the first time In life. They want to contribute to society. They do not want to be different from other young

17. At regional level, the Job Strategy has focused on developing quick and targeted initiatives for young people in the target group. How to: find a good match between the young person and the workplace. Follow up each young person to ensure that he or she gets off to a good start at work and until the end Follow up work place facilitation, and training. Follow up the employer (so that he is confident that he is not left alone) Implementation in the counties

18. The employer perspective One of our aims is that employers will to an even greater extent be partners in the task of employing people with disabilities. In different arenas, we encourage use of ordinary businesses as a goal and means and look for the best practice in methods of cooperating with employers / businesses. Change in perspective: From train-and-place to place-and-train

19. We need to have good expertice on employers Those who will assist the business in the inclusion process need to know how to: cooperate with employers / businesses on inclusion, which services an employer needs and provide guidance in this, participate and learn together with the business / employer so that the assistance provided is adapted to the business / employer.

20. Evaluation There are two factors which are crucial for enabling young people with disabilities to enter the labour market: 1): Good labour market expertise in NAV 2): The participants are motivated for the work assessment and initiative process.

21. There are more than enough initiatives in NAV for implementation of the Job Strategy. The challenges are to use these effectively. The NAV coaches use the initiatives they are already familiar and confident with. A result of the framework conditions under which they work. Not enough time to become familiar with new instruments. NAV could be better at using the mentoring scheme and time-limited wage subsidies instead of work placements in sheltered businesses. The facilitation guarantee and subsidies for job-seekers are good measures, but there is a huge potential here to expand the use of these. Evaluation

22. Based on the education level of the target group; a discussion on the role of the training initiative is required. We see the need to focus more on training and education than is the case today. Evaluation

23. Thank You for Your Attention! Employment is nature’s physician and is essential to human happiness. Galen (129-200)