Career launch made easy: customized support services for people with disabilities

Problems transitioning into the workforce? Adolescents with disabilities can get support from the North Rhine-Westphalian KAoA-STAR program. The acronym stands for “Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss- Schule trifft Arbeitswelt) and loosely translates into "No Graduation without Opening a Window of Opportunity – School to Work Transition". REHACARE.com sat down with the program coordinators of LVR (regional authority Rheinland) and LWL (regional authority Westfalen-Lippe), Eileen Witte and Johanna Korte, and asked about the program and the types of services it provides.

REHACARE: How does KAoA-STAR work?

Eileen Witte: Entering the workforce for the first time is a unique challenge for young people with disabilities. That’s especially the case when the path is meant to lead to an apprenticeship and subsequent employment and not a sheltered workshop. KAoA-STAR supports and guides students based on their individual abilities and needs and helps to smooth their transition into the workforce.

The target group of KAoA-STAR are students at special schools or inclusive schools that accommodate severe disabilities (as defined by §2 Abs. 2 SGB IX) and / or students with a demonstrated need for special education support in one or multiple categories (in Germany this is determined by a so-called AOSF process) such as intellectual disability, hearing and language impairment, physical and motor development, and visual impairment. Students with a medical diagnosis of autism are also eligible and included in this target group.

The program is implemented by the local integration specialist service (Integrationsfachdienst, IFD). Throughout the individual career orientation process at schools, IFD staff works closely with the adolescents, their parents and teachers, building the link between students, parents or guardians, the school, businesses in the primary labor market and all other participating bodies.

Johanna Korte: The career orientation allows young people to address various standard components such as career aptitude, job and career exploration and internships – based on their interests, skills, and needs.

The KAoA-STAR program also offers additional disability-specific standard elements and assistive services:           

• Functional vision assessment
• Site visits
• Job-related social skills training
• Career guidance seminar
• Communication training to promote effective communication for people with hearing impairments
• Transition support
• Use of sign language interpreters
• Job coaching services
• Assistive devices and technologies

The STARting point of the career orientation is the career aptitude test to determine skill levels, aptitudes and interests of the participating students. The applicable above-mentioned required standard components for each individual student are set up by the IFD specialists and in some cases by authorized agencies. The overall process is interspersed with so-called career conferences. These events include the important stakeholders invested in the student, including parents, IFD experts, rehabilitation counselors of the Federal Employment Agency and other parties to reflect on the results to date and to plan further steps. The individual results and experiences of the young people are recorded in a personal folder called the portfolio. The goal here is to facilitate a smooth transition from school to the workforce, vocational education and training or other career prospects.

REHACARE: The KAoA-STAR program has also assisted students with (severe) disabilities since the 2017/18 school year. How successful has the program been so far?

Witte: The STAR (Schule trifft Arbeit, English: school to work transition) program already existed prior to that date. We are celebrating our tenth anniversary this year. In December 2009, STAR was launched in both sections of North Rhine-Westphalia. We initially started out in four model regions, quickly extended it to ten model regions and are happy to say that the program has been gradually made available to all students with (severe) disabilities since 2012. From 2012 to 2017, we were able to use funds allocated by the Federal Ministry’s “Initiative for Inclusion” to implement the career orientation guidance program for adolescents with disabilities.

The project has been completed as of the 2017/2018 school year and has since been made available for all young people with disabilities. STAR is part of the state’s “Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss” (German acronym KAoA meaning “No Graduation without Opening a Window of Opportunity”) initiative and covers the disability-specific career orientation and guidance approach in North Rhine-Westphalia. We have operated under the new name KAoA-STAR ever since.

REHACARE: What has been your experience so far when it comes to connecting young people with internships or apprenticeship programs and what is your hope for the future?

Korte: All in all, the number of students who are part of the KAoA-STAR program and subsequently embark on internships, education and training programs and jobs in the primary labor market is steadily increasing. Our experience has shown that internships are the key to success. When employers and students meet in person and get to know each other, any prejudices are reduced and mental barriers broken, enabling opportunities nobody in the company has ever even dreamed of before. And that’s always a wonderful experience. Having said that, we don’t want to rest on our laurels because there is still “room for improvement" as it pertains to jobs, education and training in the primary labor market. We hope that companies will be even more open and willing to give young people with disabilities a chance, discover their many skills and talents and realize the many benefits of practicing social responsibility. That being said, we are on the right track and are very excited about it.

REHACARE: What does inclusion mean to you?

Witte: Inclusion is achieved when people with and without disabilities naturally live, learn, work and enjoy leisure activities together, affecting all areas of social life. This means that students are appreciated and valued for their uniqueness, diversity and individuality within the school context. An inclusive society embraces and treasures these differences and doesn’t exclude anyone because of their disability.

Korte: We are tasked with fostering and promoting students based on their individual abilities by providing special resources and methods. This allows students from one class to actively share the career orientation and guidance experience together and to work on the same subjects, though not always at the same pace or with the same materials, media resources or techniques.

Learn more about the KAoA-STAR program on Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM at TREFFPUNKT REHACARE (Hall 6/G51).