Workers with disabilities in sheltered employment centres: a training needs analysis

ABSTRACT

The work presented is part of a study that the research group CIFO (Research Team in Training for the Labour Market, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona) has carried out, relating to the training needs analysis and basic competences and skills in the environment of sheltered employment centres (SECs) in Catalonia (this study was undertaken in collaboration with the Coordination of Workshops for People with Mental Disabilities in Catalonia). The analysis and assessment of needs is useful from the perspective of training, as a starting point for planning adapted to the reality of disabled workers in SECs. To do this, various elements such as skills, knowledge and attitudes of individual and social nature have been considered from a systemic approach. By placing ourselves in clearly defined contexts (SECs), we bear in mind the characteristics of workers, the features of the job context, the types of activities performed, the skills related to work activities carried out, the definition of competence profiles required on the basis of the essential skills and the real training needs, through the characteristics of workers and those skills related to the labour activities that are performed as well as the needs for training perceived by workers. Identifying training needs in relation to basic skills and job requirements allows us to meet the challenge, as a trend that supports a competence basis for any worker, of raising general actions that may govern and underlie the training proposals, yet without undermining the specific competences. The importance acquired by what workers themselves have considered about their positioning is understood from the standpoint of its validity, so as to assume conclusions through triangulation processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• adaptability
• employability
• training needs
• job skills

Notes on contributors

Pedro Jurado de los Santos is a Doctor in Education Sciences, Bachelor in Psychology and Pedagogy. He is Associate Professor of Didactics and School Organisation in the Department of Applied Pedagogy (Faculty of Education Sciences) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As a specialist in Special Education, employability and disability, he has developed his professional activity as a psychologist and pedagogue, trainer, manager and coordinator of training at provincial, regional, national and international organisations. In addition to being a teacher and a researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he participates in the development of Postgraduate Certificates, Masters and University extension in national and international perspectives. He has to his credit a large number of publications in the form of articles, chapters of books and encyclopaedias and books, basically focused on the trainers’ training in matters related to the learning processes and the educational, social and labour integration of people with special needs. Moreover, he participates, as principal investigator or as a member of the research team, in studies related to the trainers’ training, with socio-educative programmes to promote inclusion, processes and models of counselling and needs analysis.

Rebeca Soler Costa is currently a teacher of Didactics, School Organisation and ICT within the Teacher Training degree in the Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza (Spain). She graduated in Psycho Pedagogy in 2007, Teacher Training in Foreign Languages (English) in 2003 and English Philology in 2002. She has obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English and likewise has a Diploma in Education and also holds a PhD in Teacher Training. Her doctoral thesis deals with specialised vocabulary in the language of Education. Dr. Soler's research specialises in e-learning teaching models, methodology and assessment. Within the University of Zaragoza, Dr. Soler holds the position of Assistant Doctor in the Department of Education Sciences (Pedagogy). She has obtained a positive evaluation regarding her last six years in developing research. She has written eight books and co-written another, as well as authoring over six peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, book chapters and several invited papers. She has participated in I+D+I projects. She belongs to two Research Groups: FORTE-ICE and ETNOEDU. She has participated as an expert in the Research Group for ‘Adult Learning’ in the University of Technology (Sydney). She is a reviewer of various international journals and is a member of different education association research communities worldwide. She has made several postdoctoral research stays at relevant foreign universities and has developed her research area. She is also the coordinator of eight Erasmus Agreements in different European universities.

Notes

1. Generally these refer to intellectual disability, which represent the vast majority, and those with mental illness.

2. Official Journal of the European Union, 2000/C 364/01.