If you look at the numbers, 43.3% of disabled people aged 18-24 are not in education, employment or training. And we know that if they don’t go into training or work straight from school, the chances of ever getting employment are significantly diminished.

Some young people with disabilities come out of a school where they may have been in a special unit, go onto a benefit and sadly don’t come off the benefit until they retire. That has to change.

At Workbridge we wanted to intervene to give more young people with disabilities a pathway from school to work.

So, in 2017, working with Anton Hutton, the local Z Energy retailer in Christchurch, Riccarton and Papanui High School’s also in Christchurch, we launched a pilot programme to give students industry specific qualifications and work experience.

 The programme includes online learning modules that can be completed in the classroom and at home, followed by an internship comprising one day a week for 10 weeks. The students are supported by learning support staff from their school for the first few weeks of their work experience, before being 100 per cent integrated into the site team.

 Two years in, we’ve now run Workbridge in Schools programmes with three Z Retailers, and six schools, in Christchurch, Auckland and Dunedin. 9 students have completed the programme, 5 achieving a Level 2 NZQA qualification — and 2 have continued into paid part time or full-time roles with Z retailers as a result. For others it has been a stepping stone to further employment training and/or internships.

Building on the programme’s success, we are now working with Service IQ to open up opportunities for pathways into different kinds of work in more places around New Zealand. Having the partnership with Z retailers has been a fantastic starting point, but we recognise that not all young people are going to work on the forecourt so we want to offer opportunities to gain skills and experience in different industries as well.

 The feedback from the Z retailers involved in the programme so far has been incredibly positive — they support our mission, enjoy engaging with the young people, and are benefiting from a potential pipeline of future employees.

The schools are excited that we are coming to them with a structured employment-focused programme and with employers who are willing to give their kids experience, and they are seeing positive changes in students who have been through the programme. Teachers say their attitudes are different, and they are looking at the world in a new way. 

And the students love that they’re getting to do something that gives them skills and experience that they can feel proud of — take for example one Christchurch student who wore his Z uniform back to school because he was so proud of the work he had done.

The programme has had the result of opening students eyes up to what is possible for them — giving them a sense of where they could be and what they could do in terms of their careers, their lives, and their contribution to society. It is meeting a fundamental need.

Workbridge in Schools means students can walk a little prouder. And I think that means everyone involved in the programme can walk a little prouder too. 

Blog published April 2019.

Written by Nick Ruane, New Business Specialist at Workbridge.

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You could say I’m ‘one of the lucky ones’.

I scraped through school, just passing School Certificate and spending two years in sixth form. My university experience was a similar story.

It was easy for people to assume I was struggling because I had spina bifida — but the fact was I was struggling because I had so much time off. By the age of 13 I’d had 27 major operations. My hospital stays and the time recovering at home kept me out of school for weeks or months at a time. My university study was interrupted with six months in the Burwood Spinal Unit.

It would have been easy for employers to see my disability, see my grades, and overlook me. But they didn’t. Instead I had employers who could see my potential and were willing to give me a chance. 

One job led to another, and another — and ultimately a fulfilling and rewarding career. 

My only wish is that I wasn’t ‘one of the lucky ones’ — that there were more employers willing to see the potential in and take a chance on young people.

The statistics are not good. Disabled people are twice as likely to leave school without a qualification — not because of their disabilities but, like me, because of the impacts of their disabilities on their education and experience.

Disabled people are also less likely to be employed than any other minority group — not because they’re not willing and able, but because there are still not enough employers who can see their potential and are willing to give them the chance to show what they are capable of.

In my nine and a half years as Chief Executive of Workbridge we worked hard to fix that and we have come a long way.

Workbridge now has programmes to give work experience to disabled students in schools, partnerships with tertiary providers to match their graduates with employment, and partnerships with employers to build their disability confidence and bring them candidates with potential. 

Workbridge is working with more employers (1800 each year), a broader range of employers, and bigger employers, who can see the potential in disabled people and are bringing more skilled and varied roles. 

Workbridge’s aim is to have a ready supply of work-ready candidates, and a ready supply of roles for those candidates, and to make it easier for school leavers and graduates to be linked up with employers — not only for low skilled roles but for highly skilled roles. 

There are many employers who are theoretically willing to employ disabled people, but many are still looking for something Workbridge can’t always give them — and that’s experience. 

There are still too many disabled candidates missing out on roles because they don’t have the experience that able-bodied candidates do.

But for the reasons I’ve talked about, that’s not an even playing field. The simple fact is that students with disabilities often don’t get the opportunities that others have to get that experience through roles such as working in bars or cafes — but that doesn’t mean they have any less potential.

The changes over the past 10 years mean Workbridge has the skilled candidates, and has the services to support employers who are willing to give disabled people the experience that the need. 

Now we need more employers to see the potential that is there in disabled people, and to step up and give disabled candidates the same break that I had. 

Grant Cleland was Chief Executive of Workbridge from June 2009 until March 2019. 

Blog published April 2019.

Written by Grant Cleland, former Chief Executive of Workbridge.

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Jonathan is an experienced leader, manager, negotiator and advocate, holding senior management positions in the not-for-profit and commercial sectors.

Jonathan has most recently led the roll-out of the visual interpreter service Aira to New Zealand and Australia.

Jonathan has lived experience of disability, being totally blind and hearing impaired.

He says he’s excited to get started.

“Workbridge is a much-respected New Zealand taonga. To be given the opportunity to lead it into the next phase of its history is a huge honour. After a long stint on the international stage, it’s great to be back in a totally kiwi role, helping employers tap into one of the most underappreciated pools of talent around,” he said.

“The sense of mana, dignity and inclusion afforded by having a job to go to can’t be overstated. With our focused team, we’re going to build on Workbridge’s impressive legacy and make it happen for even more people”.

“Jonathan’s vision and energy is precisely what we need to ensure we continue our digital transformation and drive towards 100% accessibility”, said Board Chair: David Wright.

Workbridge Council President: Gaye Austin, said, “the council and I look forward to working with Jonathan as we strive to increase employment opportunities for disabled New Zealanders into the future”.

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Published Monday 30th March 2020

During a time of such uncertainty, many jobseekers are wondering how COVID-19 will affect their employment opportunities.  

For some, this time of uncertainty can cause feelings of distress, anxiety and fear of not knowing what is going to happen – these feelings are completely normal. You should allow yourself time to notice how you’re feeling but be careful not to get caught up in them. 

The good news is that eventually – the virus will pass. Things will return to normal and when they do, companies will be ready to hire.  

As jobseekers – it’s important to keep positive and remain focussed on your employment goals. There are many things you can continue to do to achieve your goals while in lockdown. 

Here are a few suggestions you can do on your own or with support from family, friends or your Employment Consultant: 

1. Update your CV 
   Use Careers NZ’s free online tool to create an eye-catching CV ready to send to employers. It provides helpful tips and advice along the way, once you’ve finished you can download, print and email your CV in Word and PDF formats.  
   
2. Work on building your network 
   Now is a great time to continue or start to build your online network. Create a LinkedIn profile if you don’t already have one. LinkedIn is a great place to build connections. Network with people by sharing content or engaging in open discussions.  
   
3. Practise job interviews 
   Google common interview questions and prepare answers to possible questions – outlining skills and experiences you’d like to highlight. Do a phone/video practise run through with a friend, family member or your Employment Consultant. The more you can practice, the more prepared you’ll be when it’s time for the real thing. 
   
4. Discuss employment barriers and how to overcome these 
   Barriers to employment can make it hard to find or keep work. Take some time to write down a list of employment barriers you currently face. Talk to a friend, family member or your Employment Consultant to come up with strategies on how to overcome these barriers. 
   
5. Be kind to yourself 
   Your wellbeing is important. If you are feeling distressed, anxious or overwhelmed there are some things you can do to feel better; reach out to people close to you, take regular walks, implement daily routine.

For more ways to manage your wellbeing visit the COVID-19 website. 

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Today marks the 9th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). 

GAAD – held annually on the third Thursday of May, is a day focussed on digital access and inclusion for more than one billion people with disabilities and impairments. It’s a day to celebrate existing digital accessibility efforts, and also fostering conversations on the importance of inclusion to inspire further action amongst designers, developers, and tech leaders.

To show our support, we’ve published a blog which talks about GAAD and our commitment to digital accessibility. Written by Jonathan Mosen, Chief Executive of Workbridge.

Ask many disabled people about things that hold them back in life, the misconceptions of nondisabled people are usually high on the list. 

Often, there is no deliberate desire to discriminate, it’s just that people don’t know what they don’t know, and leap to conclusions.  

21 May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It’s the perfect opportunity for us to outline some of the tools and techniques disabled people are using every day to participate in New Zealand’s workforce, ensuring we all know a bit more about the empowering technology that is now built into every computing device we use. 

At Workbridge, we’re about delivering inclusive, successful employment opportunities to disabled people and people with a health condition. With the use of technology being essential in so many jobs, we’re often asked how someone with a certain type of impairment might be able to get the job done. We appreciate the questions because most of them today have compelling answers. When people simply assume that the answer is “it can’t be done”, we all lose. 

Here are a few examples: 

For people who can’t or choose not to use a keyboard: Speech Recognition software 

Because speech recognition technology such as Dragon is used by many professionals, most people understand that if you can’t use a keyboard or choose not to, that doesn’t prevent you from producing great-looking documents. In fact, if you become a real speech recognition ninja, you can produce material much quicker than many “hunt and peck” typists. It’s even possible to open apps and perform system functions using tools built into the operating system. So even if a physical impairment makes performing gestures on a touch screen or manipulating a mouse difficult, you can let your voice do the tapping and clicking. 

Mainstream technology like Siri or Google Assistant are helpful, but both iOS and Android include more powerful disability-specific tools. 

While specialised software may produce superior results, the quality of speech recognition built into desktop and mobile operating systems is improving dramatically. I now regularly find myself dictating large screeds of text using the speech recognition built into Microsoft Word. The error rate is very low. 

For employees who are hard of hearing: Speech to text 

Many of us are familiar with closed captions. As speech recognition technology improves, the real-time conversion of what people say into text is also improving. This means that someone who would once have struggled to participate in a physical or virtual meeting can now be included fully, as they read along with what is being said. For those who require a little amplification, some smartphones can now act as a remote microphone for certain types of hearing aids. 

Many cloud meeting platforms are offering auto-generated conversion of speech to text. They’re not yet perfect, but they will continue to improve. 

For blind or low vision staff: screen readers and magnification 

A screen reader is a form of assistive technology that speaks what’s on the screen or sends it to specialised hardware called a Braille display.  

Screen readers have been available on desktop operating systems for decades. I’m totally blind and wrote this post in Microsoft Word on a desktop computer thanks to my screen reader JAWS, which stands for Job Access with Speech. I was taught to touch type when I was young, so the assistive technology I need for me as a blind person isn’t input, it’s output, in other words knowing what’s on the screen. 

Even though computers are highly graphical with icons representing many functions, most of what we do on them relates to text. When apps are properly designed and visual elements contain a text label or a description of a photo, blind people can be productive, proficient users.  

Technology that reads the screen can also benefit people with dyslexia. 

Even smartphones with touch screens which might appear to be a hostile environment for blind people are accessible now. Apple created a powerful screen reader called VoiceOver. This technology allows me to make full use of my iPhone. A similar technology, Talkback, exists on Android devices. 

Most people who are legally blind have some vision that is useable un the right circumstances. All popular computer operating systems include the ability to magnify the size of text and change the colour contrast. It can make the difference to someone being able to use a device visually and not. 

For people with significant physical impairments: Switch control 

We all know that it’s possible for someone with extremely limited movement, all the way to only being able to blink, to change the world thanks to technology. The legendary Stephen Hawking was able to communicate significant scientific breakthroughs thanks to this kind of technology and his text-to-speech engine that spoke the text he would write. How fortunate we are that accessibility technology prolonged our ability to benefit from one of the greatest minds ever. How sad it is to think that someone else with something to contribute might be languishing because of misconceptions about their capability. 

Employment post-COVID-19 

These are uncertain times and many jobs have already been lost or remain under threat. Yet as we begin to focus on recovery, I don’t believe things will ever be quite the same as they were before.  for disabled people, that could be a good thing. 

The nature of some impairments means that working from home for some or all of the time is attractive. For some, a long commute can be stressful and tiring. Others benefit from flexible hours, so they can work at a time of day when they are feeling strongest and most focussed. Some with hearing impairments may find it easier to hear on a virtual meeting rather than a physical one. 

Many employers who were reluctant to embrace remote working now realise that not only is it not as bad as they thought, but it has its benefits for quality of life and the environment. 

When we don’t tap into the full potential of our people, it’s a human and economic tragedy. 

It’s a tragedy still all too often being repeated. Statistics New Zealand report that in the June 2019 quarter, the employment rate for disabled people was 23.4 percent, compared with 69.9 percent for non-disabled people. 

However, over a quarter of disabled people aged 15–64 years who were either not actively looking for work or not available to work reported that they would like to have a job. 

While you may not be aware of the many ways people can interact with information using today’s technology, the consequences of automatically assuming something can’t be done are dire. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed out on your next rock star employee because you made an erroneous assumption that a person with a certain kind of impairment couldn’t use the technology in your workplace? The opportunity cost of missing out on a capable, loyal staff member could be huge, and that’s not a slip-up you can afford to make in this difficult economic environment. 

When we welcome diversity into our workplaces, everyone wins. With all the accessibility technology around us, doing so is easier than ever, and it’s only going to get better. 

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