Which success factors do young adults with mild intellectual disability highlight in their school-work transition?

ABSTRACT

This study examined which success factors young adults with mild intellectual disability highlight in their school-work transition. The study was based on qualitative interviews with ten young adults with intellectual disability who obtained competitive employment after upper secondary school. A thematic, structural analysis was conducted to identify the themes. During the interviews, we explored how participants valued the importance of psychological traits, personal characteristics, and environmental factors for their successful school-work transition, and indeed, each of these were considered relevant to them. Participants identified self-determination, soft skills, parental/family support, wider network support, school-workplace collaboration, inclusive work environment, and individual accommodations at the workplace as important for their transition to work. The article discusses implications for practice, so that more young adults with intellectual disability may gain access to the labour market.

KEYWORDS:

• Intellectual disability
• school-work transition
• self-determination
• personal characteristics
• environmental support

Introduction

Despite a global political ideology of decent work for all, people with intellectual disability remain largely at the periphery of the labour market. In Norway, less than 3% of people with intellectual disability are competitively employed (Wendelborg, Kittelsaa, and Wik 2017), and these numbers seem to apply also across national borders (Ellenkamp et al. 2016). While the Norwegian National Insurance Act § 12–6 provides economic safety to people with intellectual disability by granting them a disability pension (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs 1997), being excluded from the labour market may have negative consequences that reach far beyond economic disadvantages. Indeed, employment is considered a central arena for building identity and for self-realisation in adult life (Lysaght and Cobigo 2014). For people with intellectual disabilities, not participating in the labour market has been associated with poorer mental health (Dean et al. 2018), poorer physical health (Robertson et al. 2019), the absence of a fixed routine that structures daily life (Lysaght, Ouellette-Kuntz, and Morrison 2009), boredom, and limited social interaction (Merrells, Buchanan, and Waters 2019). Therefore, it remains paramount to further explore which factors may increase labour market inclusion for people with intellectual disability and to implement interventions that may help young adults with intellectual disability to transition effectively from school to work.

Background

Successful school-work transitions for young people with intellectual disability depend on individual and environmental factors. Environmental factors associated with effective transitions include, amongst others, school level and workplace level features. At the school level, a literature review by Southward and Kyzar (2017) identified vocational skills instruction and goals related to competitive employment in the Individualised Education Plan (IEP) as research-based transition practices that may increase the likelihood of young people with intellectual disability gaining access to competitive employment. Furthermore, a scoping review by Garrels and Sigstad (2021) highlighted four school-related variables that were positively associated with employment for people with intellectual disability, namely being educated in a regular classroom, following a vocational education programme, coordination between the educational system and the labour market, and teachers’ expectations of employment for students with an intellectual disability. In addition, Park and Bouck (2018) highlight the importance of early transition planning with individualised transition plans and the utilisation of a functional curriculum for independent living as in-school predictors of post-school success for individuals with intellectual disability.

At the workplace level, factors associated with successful school-work transitions include employers’ attitudes towards hiring employees with intellectual disability (Meltzer, Robinson, and Fisher 2020), the availability of support for employers (Garrels and Sigstad 2021), and an inclusive work environment (Meacham et al. 2017). Kocman (2018) emphasises the need for information, communication, and awareness training amongst human resource managers as particularly beneficial to increasing the hiring of people with intellectual disability. Furthermore, Wehman et al. (2018) recommend customised employment and the presence of competent employment specialists to promote labour market participation for people with intellectual disability.

At the individual level, several predictors of effective school-work transitions for young adults with intellectual disability have been identified. Martorell et al. (2008) found that higher levels of adaptive functioning and self-determination were positively correlated with employment outcomes. Furthermore, Southward and Kyzar (2017) highlight completion from upper secondary school and self-determination as key factors that increase the chances of competitive employment. According to Causal Agency Theory, self-determination is the ability and tendency to act as the causal agent in one’s own life, and being self-determined has been suggested as a predictor of post-school employment (Shogren et al. 2015). While self-determination status during upper secondary school did not seem to directly predict employment two years post-school in this study, having goals for career development was found to contribute significantly to employment outcomes. Since goal setting and goal attainment skills are critical components of self-determination, this finding underscores the need to explore further what constitutes successful post-school outcomes. Moreover, the study by Shogren et al. (2015) indicated that job outcomes one-year post-school were a strong predictor of ongoing job outcomes. Thus, being able to transition smoothly from upper secondary school to employment affects later employment status, and this emphasises the importance of effective school-work transitions even further.

While there is an increasing research body documenting barriers and support systems that affect school-work transitions and employment for young adults with intellectual disability, few research studies include the perspectives of people with intellectual disability on this topic. Some studies have explored the perspectives of parents, teachers, or employers (e.g. Carter et al. 2021; Davies and Beamish 2009; Riesen and Oertle 2019). Yet, the voices of those concerned, namely young adults with intellectual disability who have transitioned successfully from school to employment, have rarely been heard. This article contributes to the research field by addressing this knowledge gap.

AIM of the article

In this article, we explore the ideas and experiences of young adults with mild intellectual disability who have managed a successful school-work transition, as we investigate which factors they consider important on their path to employment. The following research questions guided this article:

1. Which psychological traits and personal characteristics do young adults with mild intellectual disability identify as contributing to their successful school-work transition?

2. Which environmental factors contribute to effective school-work transitions, according to young adults with mild intellectual disability?

Schooling and employment possibilities for people with intellectual disability in Norway

In Norway, upper secondary education is optional, but it is a statutory right for all young people aged 15 to 24 (Ministry of Education and research 1998). Upper secondary education usually stretches over a period from three to five years, starting at age 16, and students can choose between a general education programme or a vocational education programme. The standard trajectory in the general education programme spans over three years, and, upon completion, students qualify for higher education. However, most students with intellectual disability do not meet the formal demands for enrolment at higher education institutions, so this education programme forms a dead-end for them. Nonetheless, approximately 30% of students with intellectual disability enrol in such general education programmes that have little focus on practical preparations for employment (Wendelborg, Kittelsaa, and Wik 2017).

The typical vocational education programme lasts for four years, including two years of school-based education followed by two years of apprenticeship, and it prepares students for a practical trade. Students can choose between ten different vocational programmes, e.g. ‘Healthcare, childhood and youth development’, ‘Restaurant and food processing’, or ‘Building and construction’. For vocational students who struggle in school, there is the possibility of choosing the training candidate alternative, a truncated trade certificate, where students follow an individually tailored training plan with a limited number of competence goals. Students with intellectual disability are entitled to special education and an IEP, regardless of the study programme that they choose. IEP goals are based on the general curriculum for the chosen study programme, but with adaptations in line with the student’s needs and potential. This often means that the educational content deviates substantially from the standard curriculum so that students do not obtain a trade certificate or degree. This puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to gaining competitive employment after upper secondary school.

Upon reaching adulthood at age 18, people with intellectual disability are eligible for a disability pension, which provides them with an economic safety net when competitive employment is hard to achieve. The disability pension is also a requirement for many of the support measures that the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) can offer people with intellectual disability to help them gain access to the labour market, such as wage subsidies, job coaching at the workplace, combinations of allowance and pay, transport to and from work, etc. The employment possibilities that are available to people with intellectual disability are competitive labour market employment (with or without permanent support), temporary labour market measures (including supported employment), and permanent sheltered work (Tøssebro and Olsen 2020). Recipients of a disability pension are allowed to work (part-time or full-time) and receive a salary. When their income reaches 0.4 times the National Insurance basic amount, their disability benefit is reduced, but Norwegian legislation guarantees that it is always more lucrative to work than to receive a disability pension alone (NAV 2022).

Method

This study is part of the project ‘Effective school-work transitions for students with mild intellectual disability’, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. This article is based on qualitative interviews carried out among employees with mild intellectual disability.

Design

This study explored best-case scenarios concerning the school-work transition for young adults with intellectual disability. We collected qualitative data through semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten young adults with intellectual disability, who had managed to obtain competitive employment after upper secondary school. With a sample size of ten participants, data saturation was achieved.

Participants

Participants were ten young adults (aged 18–25, M = 22.3; two women and eight men) with mild intellectual disability who had transitioned successfully from upper secondary school to employment in a competitive workplace. To recruit participants for the project, researchers contacted different stakeholders in organisations, centres, schools, and employment projects in south-eastern Norway.

To be recruited for the study, participants needed to fulfil the following criteria:

• Having a diagnosis of mild intellectual disability,

• Having verbal skills that allow participation in a qualitative interview,

• Being in competitive employment.

Based on the participants’ capacity and the needs of the workplaces, most participants were employed part-time.

Data collection

Data for this part of the study were retrieved during in-depth interviews with participants with mild intellectual disability. People with intellectual disability may experience communicative difficulties in terms of language comprehension, working memory, processing speed, and abstract reasoning (Corby, Taggart, and Cousins 2015; Finlay and Antaki 2012; Finlay and Lyons 2002). Moreover, the interview situation is usually a new setting for them, which may cause stress and uncertainty. Therefore, it was important to ensure adequate preparation for the interview situation. Prior to the interviews, we used participatory observation at the workplace to get acquainted with the participants. Participants were asked to give us a ‘guided tour’ of their workplace and tell us about their work tasks. The purpose of such observations was to build rapport, create trust, and improve communication during the interviews. Interviews were performed at the participants’ workplaces, and most of the interviews were carried out with both researchers present. Four of the participants chose to bring a familiar adult as support during the interview situation. Our interview guide had predefined ideas, and more detailed follow-up questions were continuously developed, based on the observations prior to the interviews and on participants’ responses. During the interviews, researchers used an informal communication style, and conversations were centred around the personal and environmental factors that participants identified as important in terms of gaining competitive employment after completing upper secondary school. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim after completion. The average length of the interviews was 40 minutes (range 30–50 minutes).

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD). Prior to the interviews, participants received an information sheet and consent form with easy-to-read information about the study, illustrated with pictograms for easier comprehension. The information sheet emphasised that participation was anonymous and voluntary and that research participants were allowed to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason.

At the beginning of the interviews, we repeated information about the project and the rights of the participants, thus giving them the opportunity to withdraw from the project if they so wished. Then their written consent was obtained. Throughout the interviews, researchers looked for signs that could indicate that participants no longer wished to participate. However, all participants seemed to experience the interview situation as pleasant, and none of the participants withdrew from the study.

Data analysis

Data analysis was conducted through an inductive data-driven process. A thematic, structural analysis was used to identify themes in the collected data (Brinkmann and Kvale 2015). Using condensed descriptions, the researchers captured the essential meaning of the experiences that were expressed by the participants in the transcribed interview material. Meaning units were condensed into subthemes, which were then assembled into themes (see Table 1). To strengthen the reliability of the data analysis, researchers collaborated during the entire analytical process, first by identifying themes separately, then by working together to reach an agreement on the choice of themes. In this analysis, the researchers had full agreement on all subthemes and then agreed on a combination of the different subthemes into the final themes.

Table 1. Examples of thematic structural analysis (Brinkmann and Kvale 2015).

Meaning unit	Condensation	Subtheme	Theme
I have always wanted to work in childcare. When we were going to have an internship, I said that I wanted to be in childcare.	Dream of working with children. Wanted to get an internship in a childcare centre.	Goal orientation	Self Determination
I was there once a week, but then I wanted to be there more often. We had a meeting with the childcare centre and school, and then we agreed on twice a week.	Wanted more practice. Arranged to have a meeting to express own preference.	Problem-solving	Self Determination

Results

The presentation below is based on qualitative thematic analysis of the employees’ own descriptions. Results primarily reflect psychological traits, personal characteristics, and environmental factors that young adults with intellectual disability identified as contributing to their successful school-work transition.

RQ1: Which psychological traits and personal characteristics do young adults with intellectual disability identify as contributing to their successful school-work transition?

The description of psychological traits and personal characteristics is categorised into two themes: Self-determination and soft skills (see Table 2). Quotes are used to exemplify the themes.

Table 2. Psychological traits and personal characteristics that contribute to successful school-work transition according to young adults with intellectual disability.

	Self-determination	Soft skills
Sub-themes	Personal empowerment	Punctuality
	Identifying and expressing preferences	Perseverance
	Goal orientation	Interpersonal skills
	Problem-solving	Trustworthiness
	Self-advocacy	High work morale/ being willing to work

Self-determination

Within self-determination, the following five subthemes seemed essential: Personal empowerment, identifying and expressing preferences, goal orientation, problem-solving, and self-advocacy.

Participants identified personal empowerment as an important factor in their transition to working life, where self-understanding and a belief in personal capacities were essential. Personal empowerment may also refer to participants’ self-confidence and their awareness of personal strengths and challenges. One of the participants, Scott (20), felt that an important reason why he got a job was that he knew how to conduct himself at the workplace, that he was nice, and that he was positive about new work tasks. At the same time, he was aware that there were certain tasks for which he needed help: ‘I’m not that good at measuring when we are making soup. There is someone who helps me measure up …, then I stir in the pot, and they can do other things’.

Personal empowerment is also about believing to have what it takes to perform a job, experiencing work task competence, and being able to accept feedback. One of the participants, Dustin (24), emphasised the importance of the employer’s feedback: «The manager is very happy with the way I cope in the job, I offer good service and I am nice to the guests. When I am given a chance, I feel self-confident». Another employee, Kenneth (24), emphasised that the reason why he was well suited for his job, was that he managed his work tasks well. With work tasks adjusted to his own level of mastery, he experienced a sense of security and work task competence. In our data material, participants’ ability to identify and express personal preferences was a common feature. They highlighted this ability as important for getting a job after upper secondary school. As Lily (20) expressed:

“I could choose from several places. I worked for a while in a childcare centre. But I prefer working with older people. It is calmer. No need to run after everyone. I chose to work with the elderly. I wanted this kind of job.”

Some of the young adults described themselves as goal-oriented, and they expressed how they followed their dreams. As Molly (21) said: ‘I have always wanted to work in a childcare centre. When we were applying for an internship, I said that I really wanted to work in a childcare centre’. Some were also ambitious on their own behalf. Dustin (24), who worked in a hotel reception, stated: ‘As long as you are good at booking systems and you manage the basics, then you can reach higher goals’. Problem-solving is an important ability when trying to obtain one’s goals. Several of our participants described how they had overcome hurdles to achieve their goals. Molly (21) realised that theoretical learning was difficult for her, and therefore, she wanted to get more practice in a childcare centre to improve her learning process. She contacted her teacher to make this happen: ‘The practice was once a week, but I wanted to be there more often. We had a meeting with the childcare centre and school, and then we agreed that I could be there twice a week’.

According to our participants, an important reason why they had succeeded in their school-work transition was their ability to stand up for themselves, i.e. practicing self-advocacy. Scott (20) showed how he was able to speak up for himself: ‘Sometimes it can be difficult, because not everyone understands that you are in need of extra help … Then, if something does not work, I talk to my contact person at the workplace’.

Soft skills

Soft skills encompassed the following five subthemes: Punctuality; perseverance; interpersonal skills; trustworthiness; and high work morale. Our participants were able to identify several essential work-life skills that they possessed. Punctuality was recognised by them as fundamental for employment: ‘I come to work on time. I’m good at informing my boss if something happens, or if there are delays in traffic’ (Dustin, 24). Perseverance was also highlighted as an important trait for succeeding in working life. Several of the participants emphasised the value of not giving up if you wanted to get a specific job. Nicolas (20) put it this way: ‘Don’t give up! That is probably the best advice I can give: Do not give up!’

Interpersonal skills, such as being sociable, likable, and positive, were also emphasised as important for success. When we asked Scott (20) what made him particularly suited for his job, he answered: ‘I am sociable and nice’. Trustworthiness was highlighted as another important characteristic for success in working life. Participants recognised the need to be honest and truthful, so that their employer and colleagues could depend on them. High work morale was another soft skill that was mentioned by several. Nicolas (20) explained: ‘I enjoy working. I have always had high work morale and I have always been willing to work’.

Somewhat surprisingly, our participants could only to a small extent refer to specific knowledge or skills that they had learned in upper secondary school and that they could use in a work context. For instance, Scott (20) spent five years in upper secondary school, but when asked if there was anything he learned in school that was useful to him in his current job, he answered: ‘No, I don’t think so’.

RQ2: Which environmental factors contribute to effective school-work transitions, according to young adults with intellectual disability?

Environmental factors contributing to effective school-work transitions were categorised into five themes: Parental/family support, wider network support, school-workplace collaboration, inclusive work environment, and individual accommodations at the workplace (see Table 3). Quotes are used to illustrate the themes.

Table 3. Environmental factors that contribute to effective school-work transitions according to young adults with intellectual disability.

	Parental/family support	Wider network support	School-workplace collaboration	Inclusive work environment	Individual accommodations at the workplace
Subthemes	Family as a driving force	Help during job search process	Low threshold for contact	Colleagues contribute to employees’ well-being	Work task lists
	Help in dealing with service systems	Job coach support	Opportunities for internships	Support from employers	Repetitive routines
	Practical support during job preparation	Support from a designated colleague			Awareness of job demands
					On-the-job training
					Flexibility for variations in energy level

Parent/family support

Within parent/family support, three subthemes were essential: Family as a driving force, help in dealing with service systems, and practical support during job preparation. For several of the participants, parents and family functioned as the most important driving force for their success in getting a job: ‘Mom made a big effort to make this happen. She talked to the teachers and attended meetings. She made it clear to everyone that “Dustin wants to get a job”’. Dustin (24)

Parents also played an important role in dealing with the various service systems, and several participants highlighted practical support from the family as essential. Scott (20) emphasised how important this support had been:

“My oldest sister found that job. Then she sent the link to my father, and they helped me with the application. I went for an interview, and then I got the job.”

Wider network support

Wider network support included support from teachers, job coaches, and others. The following subthemes were identified here: Help during the job search process, job coach support, and support from a designated colleague.

For many participants, the wider network aided in obtaining and maintaining a job. Kenneth (24) specified that the reason why he got a job was that he had contacted both his counsellor and job coach in the municipality: ‘I talked to Carol and Linda about getting a job’. According to Eric (19), support from job coaches in the workplace was also paramount: ‘He follows up and gets in touch if I have any questions … so he does the best he can to make everyone feel good’. Others pointed out that a designated colleague who could help them out when needed also played an important role.

School-workplace collaboration

Regarding school-workplace collaboration, two subthemes were essential: Low threshold for contact and opportunities for internships. An active school-workplace collaboration was often a prerequisite for success. Molly (21) put it this way: ‘The school helped me. The school contacted the Work and Inclusion Company. They arranged for placement in a childcare centre’. Participants also stated that placement in a company during upper secondary school provided opportunities for a permanent job at the same workplace after school was completed.

Inclusive work environment

Two subthemes were found related to an inclusive work environment: Colleagues contribute to employees’ well-being and support from employers.

An inclusive work environment was considered an important factor for success by many participants. They related how the working environment was crucial for their well-being and described their colleagues’ role in this: ‘Getting up every morning and going to work, I’m thinking: Oh, now I’m going to work … Nice colleagues and … Yes, I’m happy’ (Lily, 20). Another participant, Nicolas (20), described the first encounter with his workplace as follows: ‘I was received very well. The person whom I work with the most, we are good colleagues; we have the same humour and everything. So, we like to be together’.

Support from the employer was also essential for the employees. Nicolas (20) wanted to have ‘a good boss who likes me’. When asked what constitutes a good boss, he answered: ‘One who doesn`t sit in the office all day. Instead, he is with us. I see him and talk to him every single day’.

Individual accommodations at the workplace

Five subthemes related to individual accommodations at the workplace were identified: Work task lists, repetitive routines, awareness of the job demands, on-the-job training, and flexibility for variations in energy level. Individual accommodations at the workplace were often necessary for employees to experience mastery at work. Structured lists provided guidance about which tasks to conduct:

“I start at seven o’clock, and then I follow my morning routine … There is a list that we check. We look at that list, and then we divide tasks so that not everyone does the same thing. We distribute tasks so that everyone has something to do.” (Dustin, 24)

Several also mentioned that repetitive routines were essential for them. Likewise, participants needed to have a clear awareness of what the job demanded. Furthermore, on-the-job training was found important:

“It was a little scary the first day. It was embarrassing because I didn’t know what I was doing or how things worked. But I got training. After a month, they asked if I wanted to try it myself, and then I said yes. So, then I just started doing it automatically.” (Nicolas, 20)

Employers who showed flexibility towards employees’ fluctuating energy levels were also considered important. Scott (20) had the following advice for employers: ‘It is important to ask if the employee needs extra breaks, that you have the opportunity to take an extra break if needed’.

Discussion

This study focused on success factors that young adults with mild intellectual disability highlight in their school-work transition, including psychological traits, personal characteristics, and environmental factors.

According to our participants, self-determination was a crucial personal factor in obtaining employment. Self-determination refers to people acting in accordance with freely chosen goals, and self-determined people are causal agents in their own life. According to Causal Agency Theory, self-determined action consists of three essential characteristics, namely volitional action, agentic action, and action-control beliefs (Shogren, Wehmeyer, and Palmer 2017). Volitional action refers to intentional choices and deliberate acts that occur without undue external influence. Agentic action refers to self-directed and self-regulated action towards self-chosen goals. Action-control beliefs allow people to act with self-awareness and self-knowledge towards self-chosen goals.

In our findings, personal empowerment was an essential component of participants’ self-determination. This encompassed acknowledging personal strengths and challenges, feeling confident about one’s own abilities, and seeing a link between personal action and experienced outcomes. For example, one of the participants wanted to work with children and was offered an internship in a childcare centre once a week. In order to receive more practical training, she contacted the school by herself and arranged for a meeting to make this happen. Thus, she acted with the intent to achieve her self-chosen goal and displayed self-advocacy, so that she could create the desired change. This illustrates her action-control beliefs and personal empowerment.

As other studies also have shown, having career goals and being self-determined is positively correlated with employment outcomes (Martorell et al. 2008). Self-determination is also a key factor that increases the chances of competitive employment for young people with intellectual disability (Southward and Kyzar 2017; Shogren et al. 2015). With the accounts of young people with intellectual disability emphasising the importance of self-determination, this study underscores the need for providing training in self-determination skills. As Palmer, Wehmeyer, and Shogren (2017) state, self-determination skills are competencies that need to be learned, and adolescents become self-determined as they learn, practice, and refine the knowledge, skills, beliefs, and actions that constitute causal agency. Thus, strengthening students’ self-determination seems to be a fundamental way for schools to prepare students for working life. Teaching self-determination skills is not related to a specific career path, but instead, it helps students to develop basic psychological traits that will guide them in any future career choice. In line with Causal Agency Theory (Shogren, Wehmeyer, and Palmer 2017), self-determination skills training includes teaching students how to identify and express preferences, make plans, solve problems, set and attain goals, and self-regulate action, thereby developing action-control beliefs. This self-determination skills training should be an important part of educators’ efforts to prepare youngsters with intellectual disability for working life. More specifically, self-determination skills should be incorporated into students’ IEPs as operationalised learning goals related to competitive employment (Southward and Kyzar 2017).

Participants also highlighted acquired soft skills as important for their successful school-work transition. The identified soft skills included punctuality, perseverance, interpersonal skills, trustworthiness, and high work morale. Soft skills are found to play an increasingly important role in the workplace, and they include various abilities that are needed to perform in a work environment, such as communication skills, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, creativity, conflict management, self-esteem, sociability, integrity, empathy, and work morale (Ritter et al. 2018). The soft skills pointed out by our participants can also be identified as important 21^st century skills. According to a systematic review by González-Salamanca, Agudelo, and Salinas (2020), 21st-century skills refer to a set of competences required for successful functioning at work and in society. These competences differ from traditional academic skills since they are not based primarily on content knowledge, but instead, they are transversal, multifunctional, and independent of context. Just as self-determination skills, soft skills may be considered overarching capabilities that are independent of the chosen career path. This makes it also paramount to include training in these fundamental skills as part of students’ preparation for working life. With as many as 30% of students with intellectual disability attending a general education programme in Norway (Wendelborg, Kittelsaa, and Wik 2017), it is especially important for educators in these programmes to be aware of the importance of providing students with iterative opportunities to practice and refine soft skills. Within the general education programme, there is only limited focus on preparing students for working life after upper secondary education, but findings from this study emphasise the value of including soft skills as learning outcomes in the IEPs of students with intellectual disability.

In this study, participants also pointed out important environmental success factors for their school to work transition. Key factors included parental/family support, wider network support, school-workplace collaboration, inclusive work environment, and individual accommodations at the workplace. In many ways, success factors were linked to those who had contributed with crucial support in finding a job, establishing a collaboration between school and workplace, and in providing necessary support conditions in the workplace. According to our participants, parents and other family members played a pivotal role, and parents, in particular, were considered a driving force for successful school-work transition. Amongst others, the family provided crucial assistance in understanding and collaborating with the various support systems, and they helped with practical support during job searches. In this context, it seems that parents’ ambitions for employment played a significant role, and these ambitions were part of the young adults’ motivation to succeed in working life. It may be questioned whether parents’ role as a driving force in the school-work transition of their children with an intellectual disability is a consequence of a lack of systematic support from official support providers during the transition process. For many of the participants in this study, the ongoing efforts of parents seemed essential to enable an effective transition from school to work. The sample in our study consisted of participants who had succeeded in getting a job relatively soon after upper secondary school. This is in line with Southward and Kyzar’s (2017) findings that family expectations function as a unique transition-related predictor of post-secondary competitive employment for people with intellectual disability. Other studies have also demonstrated the importance of parents and other members of social and family networks, especially through continued advocacy and investment (Petner-Arrey, Howell-Moneta, and Lysaght 2016). Thus, parental ambitions for employment matter. This raises the question about what happens in those cases where parents/family are not able to provide such extensive support. More research in this area is needed. In this study, participants also received a wider network of support. This included getting support from teachers and job coaches when finding job opportunities. In some cases, participants had received support during upper secondary school and for others, job specialists had helped to find suitable work after upper secondary school completion. However, school–workplace collaboration was mentioned as an important success factor for most of our participants. This collaboration was often about internships at workplaces during upper secondary school, which provided opportunities for later employment at these same workplaces. In a scoping review on employment for people with intellectual disability, coordination between the educational system and the labour market, as well as teachers’ expectations of employment for students with intellectual disability, were two important success factors for gaining access to competitive employment (Garrels and Sigstad 2021). However, most participants in this study did not consider their school subjects and learning goals during upper secondary education as especially relevant for their chances of later employment. Since research highlights the need for early focus on training working life skills with regard to employment outcomes (Park and Bouck 2018), schools should investigate their educational practices for students with intellectual disability and explore how upper secondary education may increase its relevance for finding post-school employment. An inclusive environment and individual accommodations were mentioned as crucial workplace factors that enabled effective transitions from school to work. Individual accommodations included support from job coaches and having colleagues who understand the employee’s special needs. These findings are in accordance with previous research (Meacham et al. 2017; Meltzer, Robinson, and Fisher 2020; Garrels and Sigstad 2021; Wehman et al. 2018). Meltzer, Robinson, and Fisher (2020) also point out the influence of employer attitudes towards hiring employees with intellectual disability for a successful school-work transition. This emphasises the need for information and communication in order to facilitate the hiring of employees with intellectual disability (cf. Kocman, Fischer, and Weber 2018).

Methodological limitations

Despite this study’s limited sample size, data saturation was achieved with ten interviews. Thus, the sample size seemed sufficient. Originally, we aimed for a sample of young adults aged 18–22 years old. Since we did not manage to recruit enough participants within this age group, we also included some participants aged 23–25 years old. For those in this age group, it may have been harder to recall their years in upper secondary education and how those years prepared them for employment. This may represent a methodological limitation. Nevertheless, the participants’ stories describe their own perspectives and what they experienced as important for their school-work transition, as they recall it.

Conclusion

This study focused on ten young adults with mild intellectual disability and what they considered to be contributing factors to their successful school-work transition. Results from the qualitative interviews show that psychological traits, personal characteristics, and environmental factors were identified as important features by our participants during their transition. Participants highlighted component elements of self-determination and soft skills as personal influencing factors in their transition. Moreover, environmental factors included parental/family support, wider network support, school-workplace collaboration, an inclusive work environment, and individual accommodations at the workplace.

Self-determination skills and soft skills are competencies that seem to be particularly relevant for working life. However, such competencies need to be learned and practiced. Upper secondary schools may help prepare students with intellectual disability for working life by targeting these skills more systematically, for instance, by including them as learning goals in students’ IEPs. Environmental support could also be significant. Thus, close collaboration with parents/family and the wider network during the transition process is pivotal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).