Inclusive employment

Open and meaningful employment offers people a range of social and economic benefits. However, there are many barriers that prevent people with disability accessing meaningful and open employment(1). For example, these barriers can include lack of access to part time work, lack of access to supports to become job ready, or discriminatory attitudes of the employer.

Approximately 113,000 people with disability are unemployed(2). This figure hides both the extent of underemployment and the poor labour force participation rate for people with disability. Interventions to date have not been able to address this issue at scale.

Disability Employment Catalyst

In partnership with disability leaders, The Achieve Foundation is creating a disability employment catalyst. The purpose is to address barriers to employment for people with disability.

The concept builds employment pathways for jobseekers with disability into open employment opportunities within the disability service sector. The program is open to all people with disability who are looking for open employment opportunities.

The Achieve Foundation is partnering with Achieve Australia, Life Without Barriers and Yooralla to build a scalable, person-centred model. It is built around an identify, train, place and support model, with a focus on upskilling for career advancement. One key difference about The Disability Employment Catalyst from other models is that it will be designed, delivered, and led by people with disability.

The project is funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

The project will have a national focus, beginning in NSW and Victoria.

The project goals are to:

  • Create employment opportunities for people with disability

  • Reduce the unemployment and underemployment of people with disability

  • Reduce the skills shortage within the human services sector

Disability Leadership

The Achieve Foundation team includes people with disability at all levels including delivery, executives, and our board.

We have an exceptional steering committee that helps guide the Disability Employment Catalyst. The steering committee is made up of mainly leaders with disability that come from a range of backgrounds and offer a breadth of expertise.

Get involved

Contact us

If you are interested about getting involved or learning more about the Disability Employment Catalyst, please contact us here.

Footnotes

  1. Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, Outline of Submissions of Counsel Assisting following Public hearing 9 Pathways and barriers to open employment for people with disability, 5 March 2021; Ariella Meltzer, Sally Robinson, Karen Fisher, Barriers to finding and maintaining open employment for people with intellectual disability in Australia, Soc Policy Admin, 2020, vol 54, pp 88-101.

  2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019. Microdata: disability, ageing and carers, Australia, 2018. ABS cat. no. 4430.0.30.002. Canberra: ABS. AIHW analysis of TableBuilder