UEmploy: citizenship, rights and employment- UEmploy and inclusive strategies for a changing Europe
1. UEmploy:
Citizenship, Rights and Employment:
UEmploy and inclusive strategies for a changing
Europe
Dr. Alan Bruce: Universal Learning Systems, Ireland
UEmploy Conference: Iasi, Romania
8 November 2012
2. Background: UEmploy
The role of the European Union in social
policy measures
Traditions of national systems
The Lifelong Learning Program
Lisbon Agenda (2000)
From policy to action
3. Achievements
European Research Report
National Reports
Consultancy Tools: people, training, interventions
eLearning
Linkage and Networks
5. Globalization in focus
Global change:
urbanization, migration, media
The total marketplace
Comparative analysis
Speed of communications
Demographics
Development and transformation
Anticipating the future
6. Implications
The emergence of a true global
economy dictates a new role in
international activities to promote the
well being of persons with disabilities
through access to jobs, better
technology and social supports...
Source: NIDRR Long Range Plan 1999-2004
7. Policy landscapes: workforce
development
Recommendations or enhancing the existing workforce
development platform focus on three future priorities:
1. Support for Universal Design principles
2. Capacity and community building across stakeholders
3. Expansion of Ticket-to-Work and Self-Sufficiency
program
Golden, T. et al, Rehabilitation Research, Policy and Education, NCRE, Vol. 26, Num.
1, 2012
8. Common challenges
Diminishing fiscal resources
Increasing client needs (levels of
disability, socio-economic
dimensions, ageing)
Rising unemployment rates
Public/private fault lines
Focus on rights
Impact of generalized and sustained crisis
9. Professional capacity
Recognizing differences
Recognizing similarities
International skills for an international
environment
Shared learning and capacity development
Looking at national systems with an objective
eye
Spotting trends and patterns
Developing applied research skills
Comparative best practice
10. Common legacies
Histories
of institutionalization
Marginalization
Linkage to rights and struggle
Impact on family
Medicalization
Charity
Media imagery
11. European rehabilitation
dimensions
Emerging from the chaos – the vision of
post-1945
Histories of fragmentation
The medical model and institutional care
Lack of comparable models, methods or
statistics
The hidden issue – legacies of genocide
and eugenics
From care to inclusion – policy divergence
12. European vocational
rehabilitation systems
National divergence
Historic patterns of care
Charity and welfare
The impact of war
The role of the State
Links to independent living
13. Outlining UEmploy
Background and rationale
The role of EU supported projects
The partnership profile:
Romania
Bulgaria
Hungary
Finland
Ireland
14. Critical outcomes
Employer consultancy
Job analysis
Advice and consultancy
Using shared international perspectives
Linkage with North America
Engaging disabled citizens
Benchmarking best practice
Developing networks
15. UEmploy: process themes
Developing shared understanding
Engaging diverse national partners
Developing communications
Enhancing dialogue and defining
mythologies
Avoiding assumptions
Using advanced ICT
Products and deliverables
16. European Report
Significant drop in living standards since 1990 in
East/Central Europe. Impact of transition to market
economy.
Generalized impact of crisis in all countries since 2008
Laws, where they exist, are not enforced or only
partially understood.
Statistics are unreliable.
Awareness is poor or uneven
Categories used are unclear or often overlap
Service provision is highly fragmented
Evidence of inherent discrimination through the use
of quotas and other measures
17. European employment issues
Companies and employers lack
knowledge, awareness and skills
Policy and strategy is often aspirational but not
supported by tools and practice
Invisibility of disability in public or employment
related discourse
Medicalization
External impetus for national legislative and policy
initiatives
Unfolding process of awareness raising
Staff training and professional development
completely neglected
18. European trends
Need for Human Rights based approach is identified
Fine in theory but issues remain about practice
Impact of generalized unemployment rates
From punitive systems to employ to quality measures
that produce shared benefit
Strong legacy of segregation has a significant
impact
Persisting levels of fear, ignorance or disinterest
Need for clear policy leadership role backed up by
evidence-based best practice
Need to relate experience of disability to wider
socio-economic and demographic trends.
19. The future
Dissemination
Sustainability
Added Value
Identifying and supporting change
End-user engagement: employers and
people with disabilities
20. Embedding creativity
Organic, reflective evaluative follow-up
Analysis and modification
Lasting partnerships between research
units and schools
Labor market transformation impact
Organic link to work and community
Professional passion - out of the strait-
jacket
21. Key issues
Assessment
Progression
Competence
Service models: brokers or advocates?
Funding and resources
Complex disabilities (dual diagnosis)
Quality standards development
Linkage to emancipatory research models
Universal Design models
22. Directions
Innovation based on questions, not
answers: avoiding mantras and clichés
The poetry of open discovery and delight
Constructing schools as critical spaces
Connecting science and discovery
through technologies of emancipatory
practice
Rediscovering community in a fractured
continent