What valuable experiences and insights were you able to gain with this program in your previous years in Austria?
Schörghofer: The DisAbility Talent Program has been successfully completed three times already. The first round took place in 2015 with five companies (UniCredit Bank Austria, IBM, REWE, PwC & Austrian Economic Chambers), the second round featured seven partner companies (UniCredit Bank Austria, Caritas, Austrian Lotteries, PwC, REWE, Takeda, Oesterreichische Nationalbank) and the third round partnered up with nine top companies (Caritas, Austrian Lotteries, PwC, REWE, Takeda, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Mondi, Air Liquide and Raiffeisen Bank International). The current DisAbility Talent Program has ten partner companies (Caritas, Austrian Lotteries, PwC, REWE, Takeda, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Mondi, Air Liquide, Raiffeisen Bank International, and Premiqamed) on board.
The fact that the DisAbility Talent Program had an increasing number of partner companies each year proves the increased interest of the business community in this career program.
The program participants also benefited from the DisAbility Talent Program. Many students don’t have any experience with the job application process and have many questions that need to be answered. The DisAbility Talent Program is a marvelous opportunity to practice job interviews and get answers to questions in a safe environment.
One participant wrote to us and said, "What I used to consider my weakness is now my strength."
That being said, participants are not just benefitting from the individual and group coaching sessions. Nearly 25 percent of the participants also become permanent employees at one of our partner companies thanks to the DisAbility Talent Program.