Employment of people with disabilities in Finland 1
Employment of people with disabilities in Finland 1 Dr. Antti Teittinen, adjunct professor Research Manager Finnish Association on People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities This presentation mostly is based on Teittinen, A. 2015. Miksi vammaiset syrjäytyvät työelämästä? Rakenteellinen näkökulma (Why people with disabilities are discriminated from work? Structural point of view) Ekholm, E. & Teittinen, A. 2014. Vammaiset nuoret ja työntekijäkansalaisuus. (Disabled young adults and working life citizenship)
The Frame • Employment rate of people with disabilities is not unambiguous to calculate • OECD (2008) 58% • EU-SILC (2010) 55% • Paid work <20% (Vogt 2009, Teittinen 2015) • Reasons for different estimations • Survey analyses of OECD and EU-SILC • OECD and EU-SILC include in their estimation a job-training and rehabilitative work activities • In paid work about 37 000 persons with disabilities
Employment Policy of People with Disabilities in Finland • Responsibilities divided between Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and Ministry of Economy Affairs and Employment • Services provided by the Employment and Economic Development Office are available for persons who are on disability pension • This service is underutilized, about 200 -300 clients per year • Municipal and Employment and economic development offices (state) of Supported employment of a disabled person • The purpose of supported employment is to increase the vocational and social quality of life of the person receiving support, by providing the customer with equal rights to work in the open job market, for normal wages, continuous support for keeping up with the work life, thereby helping the customer to become an active member of the society.
For employees • Finding a job • Individual coaching for work tasks • Continuing support in workplace • Mainentance of employment
For employers • Pay subsidy, 50% of payments and 24 months • Subsidy for arranging working conditions • Assistance from a job coach
Job coach • Job coach is a kind of middleman between employees and employers • To find employees and employers • To tailor work tasks to fit to both employers and employees • To give guidance to applicate supports from Employment and economic development offices • Municipal and private firms
Discussion • Economic booms and recessions have an influence of employment of people with disabilities • Still a problem of consolidation of social supports, pension schemes and paid work • Most vulnerable groups: people with intellectual disabilities, women with disabilities and older persons with disabilities • People with disabilities as a labour force is a new phenomenon in 21 st century.
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