Transition Academy Session Three

1. Transition AcademySession Three Raytown Education Center Feb 10, 2010

2. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Employment is the most important outcome of the transition process for youth with disabilities and families. • For more than two decades, one of the principal goals of disability policy in the United States…has been to improve employment opportunities for young people with disabilities as they exit secondary education programs. - David R. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Institute on Community Integration, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

3. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • “Jobs will be our #1 priority in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight!” - President Barrack Obama, United States of America State of the Union Address January 27, 2010 • President Obama indicated that his top priority was jobs…creating jobs to help lift up “Main-street America”, and helping small business. • One of our top priorities in transition planning should be developing work experience opportunities for students with disabilities in “Main-street America”, and helping students become qualified job candidates, and successful employees.

4. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Successful transition is about outcomes, and improving employment opportunities for students with disabilities. • IDEA 2004 Secondary Transition Indicators: • Indicator #1 – Graduation Rate • Indicator #2 – Drop-out Rate • Indicator #13 – Quality IEPs • % of youth 16 or older with IEPs that include transition services that will reasonably enable the student to meet their post-secondary goals • Indicator #14 – Post-School Outcomes • % of youth no longer in secondary school, who had IEPs and were enrolled in higher ed, some other post-secondary educ/training program, competitively employed, or in some other employment within one year of leaving high school

5. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Work-based learning refers to a planned program of training and work experiences that occurs in authentic workplaces (Hamilton & Hamilton, 1997). • Work-based learning can positively affect student outcomes and each of our transition indicators.

6. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Career preparation and work-based learning experiences are essential in order for youth to form/develop aspirations, and to make informed choices about careers. • Work experiences can be provided during the school day, after school, [and/or during the summer], and will require collaborations with other organizations. • All youth need information on career options, including the following: • Career assessments • Structured exposure to post-secondary education/other life-long learning • Exposure to career opportunities that ultimately lead to a living wage • Training designed to improve job-seeking skills and work-place (soft) skills [Reprinted from NCWD/Youth Guideposts for Success National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability]

7. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Youth with disabilities also need the following [self-determination and self-advocacy skills]: • Understand the relationships between benefits planning and career choices; • Learn to communicate their disability-related work support and accommodation needs; and • Learn to find, formally request, and secure appropriate supports and reasonable accommodations in education, training, and employment settings [Reprinted from NCWD/Youth Guideposts for Success National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability]

8. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Work is good! • …it is critically important for youth with disabilities to experience learning in work-based environments… situations in which they spend concentrated and structured time in actual work settings provided by cooperating companies and employers. • …connecting youth with disabilities to workplaces early and often throughout the secondary school years is a valuable way to help youth get started on productive post-school careers. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

9. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Work experiences – • offer opportunities for youth to learn both the “soft skills” needed to succeed in the workplace and specific occupational skills • help youth to identify employment and career preferences, as well as supports and accommodations that may be essential to long-term workplace success [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

10. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • What are the student benefits of work-based learning? • What are the key components involved in quality work experience programs? • Table Topic - Take Five

11. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Student benefits of work-based learning: • Identify career interests, skills, and abilities • Explore career goals • Identify on-the-job support needs • Develop employability skills and good work habits • Gain an understanding of employer expectations • Link specific classroom instruction with related work expectations • Develop an understanding of the workplace and the connection between learning and earning • Gain general work experience, as well as experience connected to a specific job function, that can be added to a work portfolio or resume [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

12. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Quality Work Experiences: • Integrated into curricula requirements • Carefully organized and supervised • Include opportunities to receive guidance and feedback on work performance • Serve as career building blocks as adolescents exit school • Promote paid work, the “gold standard” [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

13. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Quality work-based learning program characteristics: • Clear program goals • Clear expectations and feedback to assess progress toward achieving goals • Clear roles and responsibilities for worksite supervisors, teachers, other support personnel • Training plans that specify learning goals tailored to individual students with specific outcomes connected to student learning • Convenient links between students, schools, and employers [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

14. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Quality work-based learning program characteristics (cont): • On-the-job learning • Range of work-based learning opportunities, especially those outside traditional youth-employing industries • Mentor at the worksite • Assessments to identify skills, interests, and support needs at the worksite • Reinforcement of work-based learning outside of work • Appropriate academic, social, and administrative support for students, employers, and all involved partners [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

15. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Work experiences may include any combination of the following: • Career exploration • Job shadowing • Work sampling • Service learning • Internships • Apprenticeships • Paid employment (may include VR COOP) [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

16. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Career exploration – involves visits by youth to workplaces to learn about jobs and the skills required to perform them…brief exposure to a specific kind of work environment or job type • Job shadowing – extended time, often a full workday or several workdays spent by youth in a workplace accompanying an employee in the performance of his/her daily duties • Work sampling – work by a youth that does not materially benefit the employer but allows the youth to spend meaningful time in a work environment to learn aspects of potential job tasks and soft skills required…can provide rotations through several workplaces during a school year so that youth can “sample” different types of jobs and different work environments • Service learning – hands-on, purposeful volunteer service that contributes to community improvement or addresses a charitable or community need in some way while integrating course objectives [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

17. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Internships – formal arrangements where youth is assigned specific tasks in the workplace over a pre-determined period of time…may be paid or unpaid, depending upon the nature of the agreement with the company and the nature of the tasks • Apprenticeships – formal, sanctioned work experiences of extended duration in which an apprentice learns specific occupational skills related to a skilled trade such as carpentry or plumbing…many include paid work components • Paid employment – existing standard jobs in a company or customized work assignments that are negotiated with an employer…always feature a wage paid directly to the youth…may be scheduled during or after the school day [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

18. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Legal Aspects of Work Experience • When developing work experiences it is important to be aware of certain legal considerations. • Two of the most relevant laws are the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

19. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • When work experiences are unpaid, such as in career explorations and volunteer job sampling, provisions of the FLSA describe when and under what conditions a youth can be in the workplace and have remuneration. • When work experiences involve pay and wages, the FLSA also provides guidance about conditions that must be met regarding the employee’s age, job hazards, and wage levels. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

20. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Discrimination and accommodation provisions of the ADA often apply to youth with disabilities in transition work experiences. • The ADA is considered a landmark civil rights law that, prohibits discrimination by employers against job candidates and employees with disabilities. • Legally required reasonable accommodations in the context of youth work experiences only apply to paid employment, when the youth can reasonably be expected to perform the essential functions of the job and when the cost and difficulty of providing the accommodations are not excessive. • When accommodations are needed, it is important to prepare or assist youth in learning when/how to disclose their disability, and to negotiate accommodations with the employers. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

21. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities Key Questions • Who is responsible for identifying/developing work experiences for students with disabilities? • What are the challenges involved in creating work-based learning opportunities for your students? • What are the solutions? • Table Topic – Take Five

22. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Who is responsible? • Schools have primary responsibility for providing transition services – IDEA 2004. Under statute, transition is the shared responsibility of VR and Education, with support from the community. • The Rehab Act – Includes requirements for collaboration and coordination with education officials in the provision of transition services for youth with disabilities. • When it comes to transition services…it really does take a village! • Targeted professional and agency partners such as vocational rehabilitation, centers for independent living, mental health and/or developmental disabilities agencies, employment service providers, career centers, higher ed, etc., should work collaboratively to help school transition professionals.

23. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Challenges: • Time spent away from the classroom learning at the workplace will negatively affect academic success, particularly since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). • School system is accountable for student achievement, so work-based learning will need to be seen as academically rigorous. • School personnel often struggle to find time to establish and maintain relationships with participating employers. • Easy and effective mechanisms for linking students with employers need to be created and/or expanded in most school systems. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

24. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Challenges: • Work-based learning and academic coursework need to be integrated • Work experiences can contribute to a student’s overall academic development through journal writing, formalized training plans, reports/presentations on the experience, etc. • Can schools fit work experience into the daily schedule? • Will emphasis on high-stakes testing make work experience difficult to justify? • Will work experience activities for youth, particularly those who have access to general education and/or who are on a diploma track, be harder and harder to come by? [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

25. The Value of Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Solutions • Get creative! • Summer work experiences • Block scheduling • Strengthen partnerships with career ed • Strengthen partnerships with VR • Improved models of linking work-based learning to academic instruction (existing content courses can be augmented with complimentary work-based assignments)* • Employer-led Transition Approaches (Project SEARCH)* • Collaborative Transition Models (school and post-school programs collaborate so first day after school exit looks same as the day before)* [*Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

26. Soft Skills • The three “R’s” are fundamental, but employers view “soft” skills as even more important to getting and keeping a job. • What are “soft skills”? • Table Topic – Take Five

27. Soft Skills • Soft skills include the following: • Appropriate Behavior • Appropriate Dress/Appearance • Personal Hygiene • Timeliness • Respect for Co-workers • Respect for Supervisors • Appropriate Communication (Oral and written) • Taking on Responsibility • Critical thinking or problem solving skills • Professionalism or work ethic • Teamwork and Collaboration skills

28. Soft Skills • Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) surveyed employers to determine if there are gaps between their needs and the applicants seeking employment. • The greatest discrepancies were noted in soft skills. • The top four shortcomings of applicants were: • Lack of a Positive Attitude • Poor Work Ethic • Poor Customer Service Skills • Poor Communication skills

29. Soft Skills • Competencies most important to employers (based on NOW Jobs – Entry Level – which account for 94% of the available openings): • Acquiring/Using Information • Computer Literacy • Habits (Punctuality/Good Hygiene) • Interpersonal Skills • Leadership • Managing Time Wisely • Specific Technical Skills Table Topic – Take Five Rank order from most to least important

30. Soft Skills • Competencies most important to employers • Interpersonal Skills 94% • Habits (Punctuality/Good Hygiene) 94% • Managing Time Wisely 88% • Acquiring/Using Information 85% • Leadership 65% • Specific Technical Skills 52% • Computer Literacy 48%

31. Soft Skills • In another study, employers cited these skills: • Safety • Courtesy • Honesty • Reliability • Flexibility • Team skills • Eye contact • Communication skills

32. Soft Skills • Teach the skills – What do the skills “look like?” • Make it real – • Mirror, “Would you hire me?” • Dress for an interview • Have students present a five minute commercial advertising themselves • Ask businesses to speak in the classroom • Make courtesy part of the expectations of the class • Have students plan and present at IEP meetings • Role Play – Video Interviews

33. Networking Skills • Networking, or connecting with people who may be able to help with career exploration or point to others who may help, is a learned skill that most students need to develop. • Students are frequently reluctant or don't think to tap into their networks for assistance and guidance. • Students should be encouraged to develop good habits in social interaction and take interest in their community, and to practice networking as well. • Students need opportunities to practice and put into use networking skills such as: identifying their own network, approaching people, talking about their skills and interests, learning about what employers look for, exploring careers and job options, and exhibiting good business etiquette. [Reprinted from Teaching Networking Skills: Paving a Way to Jobs and Careers by Allison Fleming, Cecilia Gandolfo, and Colleen Condon]

34. Networking Skills • Some students know what will be next for them after high school, they can benefit from discussing those plans with the people in their network and by starting to explore additional opportunities and resources. • Many students, however, do not have a clear picture of their future. • For them, their network of connections can be an invaluable resource to explore opportunities, learn about required training and education, identify necessary skills and experience for certain fields, and seek options for hands-on experience through work, internship, and mentorship. [Reprinted from Teaching Networking Skills: Paving a Way to Jobs and Careers by Allison Fleming, Cecilia Gandolfo, and Colleen Condon]

35. Networking Skills • How can you embed networking skills into the student’s curricula? • What are some creative ways to help student’s learn these skills prior to graduation? • Table Topic – Take Five

36. Business Relationships • Employers are absolutely essential partners in creating work experiences for youth...an ultimate customer of transition programs that promote work experiences and jobs. • When employers are treated like customers of transition programs, opportunities for work experiences can be plentiful. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

37. Business Relationships • According to employers who have successfully brought youth with disabilities into their workplaces, three main reasons exist for employers to host youth with disabilities (Lueking, 2004): • To meet a specific company need, such as filling a job opening • To meet an industry-wide need, such as preparing potential new workers in a technology industry • To meet a community need, such as helping youth become productive citizens [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

38. Business Relationships • Generally, employers identify four key factors that contribute both to their decisions to bring youth with disabilities into their workplaces and to their satisfaction with the contribution youth make in the workplace (Lueking, 2005): • Competent and convenient assistance in receiving youth referrals • Matching of youth skills and interests to job tasks • Support in training and monitoring the youth at the workplace • Formal and informal disability awareness and training for the youth’s co-workers (when the youth chooses to disclose a disability) [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

39. Business Relationships • The success of youth in the workplace is as much about keeping employers happy with the arrangement, as it is about supporting youth. • One cannot happen without the other – youth cannot be successful, and employers cannot benefit, unless there is simultaneous recognition that both have something to gain by good service from transition professionals who are supporting work experience. • Persuading an employer to commit to bringing a youth into the workplace may seem like the goal, but it is really just the beginning. • Delivering promised services in a timely, convenient, effective, responsive, and value-added way so that the employer remains satisfied is in fact the larger goal. • By keeping the employer satisfied, the work experience is more likely to be successful for the youth, the employer is often willing to host additional youth, and the employer is likely to tell other employers about his or her positive experience. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

40. Interagency Collaboration • The work of transition specialists is often made much easier and more effective when there are targeted professional and agency partners who work collaboratively with them, as well as with youth and their families, as all plan for work experiences and sustained work success as the youth exit school. • A primary resource for transition employment support is the state VR agency. • VR can facilitate and pay for such services as job coaching, assistive devices, and other accommodations needed for finding and keeping employment for eligible individuals. • Federal regulations favor the active participation of VR in planning for youth in transition, including participating in the IEP planning meetings before school exit; being party to interagency cooperative transition agreements so that services can be delivered as efficiently as possible; and collaborating in employment development plans before, during, and after school exit. [Reprinted from “The Way To Work, How To Facilitate Work Experiences for Youth in Transition, Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D]

41. Interagency Collaboration • Transition for VR is also about outcomes and improving employment opportunities for students with disabilities. • FY09 VR Transition-Related Outcomes: • 6,737 students worked with VR Counselors prior to graduation/exit from high school • 627 eligible transition students reached successful employment outcomes • 63% of all eligible transition students who received VR services and exited the program achieved successful employment outcomes

42. Interagency Collaboration: An Interactive Discussion • What services related to “work-based learning” and “work experiences” can your local VR counselor provide? • What is the COOP program, how is it integrated into the student’s curricula, and is it a viable work experience option for students in your school? • How early and when should VR get involved in providing work experiences for students with disabilities in your school district? • How can VR partner with schools, rehabilitation providers, career centers, employers, other agency partners in developing work experience opportunities for students with disabilities?

43. Work Experience for Students with Disabilities • Where do we go from here? • What are the next steps in providing more, better, or different work experience opportunities for students with disabilities in your school district or on your VR caseload? • What is your plan of action for collaboration and coordination within your school, with VR, with business, with other partners?