EmployAble: Inclusive vocational training and workplaces for youth with disabilities in Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia

Young people with disabilities who are unemployed receive the necessary skills in mainstream training institutes to become employed or self-employed. More than 20 stakeholders are involved in the core implementing teams. In August 2015, 273 persons were enrolled in institutes or received in company training.

Problems Targeted

The unemployment rate of young people with disabilities is often 40 to 60% higher compared to their non- disabled peers, and even if they are able to find a job they experience a lot of uncertainty about their temporary employment. Even though Ruanda, Ethiopia, and Kenya have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and also have government policies that support the inclusion of people with disabilities to join the labour market, the levels of inclusion are still below the national targets.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

EmployAble is an action-learning program, with a focus on multi stakeholder involvement and inter country exchange and learning. The methodology to enhance employment of youth with disabilities is to support a number of ‘model’ TVETs and employers in the process of becoming more inclusive. This is done in a participatory and systematic way, including a disability inclusion assessment. Employable also facilitates enrolment by mobilizing youth with disabilities, and assessing their capacities and needs by a multi-disciplinary team, resulting in course selection. The program further supports access to scholarships or bursaries if needed and psychosocial support for youth with disabilities throughout the process of enrolment, training and looking for employment.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

It is expected that by the end of 2016, 400 youth with disabilities will be trained and that 50% of them will have found employment. The model TVETs will be fully inclusive to youth with disabilities and serve as an example to other TVET agencies in their countries. 55 employers will have been sensitized on disability and 41 will be actively involved by either receiving interns with disabilities or hiring youth with disabilities. In Kenya and Rwanda, steps will have been made to follow the example of Ethiopia and develop a policy on Inclusive TVET