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| Sunday, 19 September 2004 |
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Features |  |
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Differently-abled, doesn't mean unemployable by Carol Aloysius One of the leading causes for widespread unemployment among the disabled, is the reluctance of employers to hire them. This is so in spite of the fact that many disabled persons are talented educated, have the required skills, and in several instances have performed even better than their able bodied counterparts, when given the chance.
Spearheading their cause is Sri Lanka's principal Trade Union representing employers, the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC), which has initiated several innovative programs to make the disabled job seeker more " marketable". The EFC's involvement in facilitating employment opportunities for Sri Lanka's disabled job seekers began in 1999, when a small group of members of Sri Lanka's principal Trade Union representing employers, the Employers' Federation of Ceylon (EFC), left for the UK to visit the Employers Network on Disability which focuses on disability in the work place. The latter, with more than three hundred and seventy five members including an impressive list of high flying corporations and employing twenty percent of the UK workforce, and considered an authoritative voice on disability, proved to be a valuable model for the Lankan visitors looking for new avenues of facilitating employment for the disabled especially in the private sector. As a direct result of the ILO sponsored study tour, the EFC organised in 2000 a fifteen member Steering Committee from its membership representing the hotels, plantations, manufacturing and banking sectors, to replicate the UK model and adapt it to the local environment. This committee became the basis of the Employers Network on Disability, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. "Our main aim was to motivate employers to hire people with disabilities into their workforce since many of these persons have employable talents. As this was a very new concept to our members, we had to first raise awareness and dispel negative attitudes with regard to disabled persons in employment", says Ms Meghamali Aluvihara, Co-ordinator of the Project and one of the members of the study tour to the UK. The second step was to develop a database of employable disabled persons as there was hardly any information available for employers in this aspect. Inspite of awareness raising among the employers, the results were not as promising as they expected and the EFC felt that the Network should adopt a more proactive approach that made hiring easier. It was then that the ILO came up with the innovative idea of holding a Job Fair to bring disabled job seekers, who had been screened according to employer needs and trained in job searching, together with a number of employers who expressed an interest in hiring persons with disabilities. "Since we lacked expert assistance in this direction, the EFC decided to invite the Ministry of Social Services and Motivation Charitable Trust to join the Network. The latter is a UK based NGO charity with a local branch in Sri Lanka and receives USAID funding here to co-ordinate the services of other NGO's dealing with disability issues", Ms Aluvihara explains. Pooling their joint resources, the three organisations initially selected people with disabilities from the EFC data base and trained them in job seeking skills on techniques based on a training manual prepared by the ILO. "What Motivation did for the Job Fair, was to collect data on these potential job seekers by advertising in the media and contacting various service organisations dealing with persons with disabilities. We then assessed their the initial applications and gave the candidates a training in job seeking skills e.g. facing an interview. We then brought these job seekers and the employers to a common venue which we called the Job Fair", explains Shehan De Tissera, one of the organisers of the Fair at Motivation. The first ever Job Fair for persons with disabilities in July 2003, was followed by a second Job Fair which was held last week. Speaking to the seventy odd employers who had turned up to meet the prospective employees, this writer found that there was a definite U turn in their mind set with regard to giving employment for the disabled. Many were convinced that the young men and women they had interviewed that afternoon could not only be productive workers, but would enrich their respective companies with their skills and talents. "Most people think that disability is a burden, but we have met very talented, capable persons at this Job Fair. We are glad that this Job Fair has given them the opportunity to showcase their skills", Avindra Sirinatha, General manager of Royal Ceramics distributors told us. He said that in the interviews he had conducted, he had discovered several highly educated persons such as science graduates and those with IT qualifications and also people with experience in quality control. "These persons can easily be absorbed in to various managerial posts. Nirmalan Mahalingam and Manique Jayasooriya, both H.R. executives of Cargills Ltd, said that ten with impaired and they were looking for data entry and machine operators to work for in the various branch offices throughout the country. Needless to say, this rare meeting between employer and job seeker employee has sparked new hope for the over hundred job seekers. "Upto now we believed we were merely chasing impossible dreams that would never materialise. But now they seem to be coming true", said a hopeful Ajantha Dharshan, a paraplegic who was looking for some kind of 'creative work' after being trained in leather craft. Visually handicapped Sampath Sammekuma was looking for a job as a carpenter having been trained in the field at the Ketawela Training centre, while deaf/mute. Dharshan Prasad and Susantha Wijeratne wanted to find employment in a garage as both were adept tinkers. Sanjeewani who has only one hand (her left) opted for a clerical job. The EFC considers the recently concluded Job Fair as just one aspect of a broader agenda in the Employers Network. Our overall goal is to facilitate opportunities for the disabled to enter the mainstream of economic activity through employment. But the fair itself was an important step towards realising that goal", says Gotabaya Dassanayake, Director General, EFC." Taking employment for the disabled a step further, the EFC has initiated another innovative project; training disabled job seekers in marketable skills. "The Network with its partners now provides" market driven" training for disabled youth to enter the job market.' The Network also hopes to take the skills training project to other areas such as IT in the future. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Today, due to awareness raising by concerned organisations working on
behalf of the disabled,employers are beginning to see these differently
abled persons in a new light. A growing belief in their ability to be
productive employees in their own right, has begun to open new doors for
the thousands of disabled job seekers, clamouring for their niche in the
work place.
