A Supported Employment Pilot Scheme, managed and financed by the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC), was launched by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy Dr Lawrence Gonzi at the ETC's Hal Far premises recently.
The new pilot scheme will assist persons with disability to engage in remunerative employment within an integrated work setting and with the provision of on-going support services.
The Supported Employment Scheme seeks to integrate work with ongoing support services. The scheme is an incentive for disabled people who may be perceived as being too challenging to integrate in the labour force.
The new scheme is being spearheaded by the ETC's strong belief that persons with disability can integrate in the labour market once these persons are properly assessed, trained and placed in the right workplace.
The objective of the Supported Employment Scheme is to increase the participation of persons with disability in gainful and productive employment.
The employer is guaranteed that the disabled employee will receive personalised professional support to reach the desired productivity.
ETC will provide the support needed by prospective employees as to job coaching services/personal assistance on a temporary or permanent basis, and the wage subsidy to be paid to the employer depending on the stipulation indicated in the scheme.
Initially, chosen individuals are placed with employers on the 'Bridging the Gap Scheme' for a period of eight weeks. Under this on-the-job training scheme the employer does not incur any expense as the ETC gives the trainee a weekly subsidy of Lm35, for the duration of the training.
After this period a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a representative of the employer, an occupational therapist and an ETC employment advisor, assesses the trainee in his or her presence.
The team will determine the level of support needed by the trainee to reach the level of efficiency acceptable to the employer.
The subsidy will be two-tiered with Category A-High Support for trainees who are assessed to reach an efficiency level of up to 40 per cent and Category B-Low Support for trainees who are assessed to reach an efficiency level of up to 41 to 65 per cent.
While launching the scheme, the Minister for Social Policy said that persons with disability are today being provided with an important mechanism to develop their potential and further their skills.
"This is also an important achievement since government is committed to further the participation of persons with disability in the labour force. It is important for this sector of the populated to be an active part of the country's economic fabric.
"This scheme is in itself a model of how government wishes to further its policy on disability issues... not by segregation and providing closely sheltered environments, but through a policy of mainstreaming such that persons with disability have choice and potential."
Minister Gonzi mentioned that the past four years have seen an exponential growth in services for persons with disability with investments reaching record heights.
"This legislature also marked the formalisation of civil rights for persons with disability, a matter which had long been overdue and which was rightly restored through legislation.
"It is prudent to say that persons with disability have during this legislature been by far the greatest beneficiaries of government's social policy," concluded Minister Gonzi.
The scheme was launched in the Year for Persons with Disability, in the presence of ETC deputy chairman Professor Zammit, deputy CEO Felix Borg, and Joe Camilleri, chairman of the National Commission for Persons with Disability.