OBJECTIVE & THEORETICAL APPROACH.- EVALUATION OF SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMES IN MAJORCA.

 The study analyses the results of labour integration of the people with disabilities assisted by the two programmes developed in Majorca that apply the Supported Employment model (AESE., 2009) and our research aims to estimate the influence of the process of counselling and external control applied to one of them. Both programmes are remarkable projects due to the experience built over the last years.

 The problem tackled by both programmes is the lack of training, preparation and support for the labour integration of the community of people with intellectual and learning disabilities. The aim of the Guidance Services intended to develop these programmes is to increase the social integration of the people with disabilities by enhancing the access to the labour market and the subsequent maintenance of the job. The operational objective relies on the training and preparation of the people and workplaces to effectively achieve the labour integration on the basis of the individual needs and the available community resources.

 We consider Social Integration as the general framework where specific standardised situations –such as labour or educational integration- are produced. Labour Integration is understood in terms of the inclusion –by means of a contract- of a disabled person in a workplace in a company where the employee interacts with other non-disabled workers.

The most solid advance of the last years regarding the achievement of this social principle relies on the identification of the methodologies that allow for the achievement of the proposed integrating aims. Therefore, continuous action methods (Mansell and Beadle-Brown, 2004) and the so-called support paradigm must be regarded as basic elements of the social progress in the last decades.

 The concept of support turns out to be a fundamental element in order to understand the new approach on disability appeared in the eighties. The echoes of the “needed support for integration” on both, education and rehabilitation are the increase of opportunities for personal training and the integration in the community. 

 The term “support needs” involves stressing on the possibilities of personal and potentiality development as well as the search for autonomy and the feeling of full belonging to a community. Support assists the individual: relying on the consideration of his/her capacities and skills -but also on the limitations-, and on the basis of the development and growth potential, support provides the individuals with the opportunity to get the maximum normalization according to their interests, preferences and expectations.

 Within the context of social integration of people with disabilities, the modality of Supported Employment has turned –according to the author of this paper- into one of the most interesting initiatives from a pedagogical point of view

 According to Paul Wehman (1992, 2006), one of the leading scholars in the field, Supported Employment is regarded as the performance of a job in integrated labour environments. It addresses those people who have not been able to grasp other independent labour opportunities in ordinary companies.

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