Exploring employment readiness through mock job interview and workplace role-play exercises: comparing youth with physical disabilities to their typically developing peers

Abstract

Purpose: To assess performance differences in a mock job interview and workplace role-play exercise for youth with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers. Methods: We evaluated a purposive sample of 31 youth (15 with a physical disability and 16 typically developing) on their performance (content and delivery) in employment readiness role-play exercises. Results: Our findings show significant differences between youth with disabilities compared to typically developing peers in several areas of the mock interview content (i.e. responses to the questions: “tell me about yourself”, “how would you provide feedback to someone not doing their share” and a problem-solving scenario question) and delivery (i.e. voice clarity and mean latency). We found no significant differences in the workplace role-play performances of youth with and without disabilities. Conclusions: Youth with physical disabilities performed poorer in some areas of a job interview compared to their typically developing peers. They could benefit from further targeted employment readiness training.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Clinicians should:

• Coach youth with physical disability on how to “sell” their abilities to potential employers and encourage youth to get involved in volunteer activities and employment readiness training programs.

• Consider using mock job interviews and other employment role-play exercises as assessment and training tools for youth with physical disabilities.

• Involve speech pathologists in the development of employment readiness programs that address voice clarity as a potential delivery issue.

• Adolescent
• disability
• employment
• job interview
• vocational rehabilitation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kelsey Bick, Helen Donnelly, Finola D’Souza, and Samantha Burns English for their assistance with this project. We are also grateful to the participants who took part in the project.

Declaration of interest

Funding was received from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). S. L. is supported through a Career Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.