Out of 4,805 attempts by the Employment and Training Corporation at locating a job for people with disability last year, a mere 23 people were successfully employed, Times of Malta has learnt.

“It is clear that both past and present efforts aimed at supporting and including people with disability have failed,” said Philip Rizzo, board director of the Employment and Training Corporation.

From the 23 people, 17 were employed on a full-time basis while six were employed part time.

Employment rate among people with disability:

50%

UK, Ireland

4.5%

Malta

Mr Rizzo – who chairs the Supported Employment Working Group and serves as a consultant on disability to the government – explained that the 4,805 figure included multiple submissions by the same individuals listed on the ETC Register of Disabled Persons.

The figure did not necessarily mean that all the listed applicants were physically interviewed and rejected by prospective employers.

However, Mr Rizzo pointed out that the huge discrepancy was very significant in highlighting the dire state of affairs.

“These statistics show that out of 4,805 attempts at locating a job for disabled people, we only scored 23 of those times. Malta has an unemployment rate of 95.5 per cent in this sector of our population.

“Out of 27,400 people with disability, only 1,246 were in employment last year. This is further thrown into relief when compared to other countries. Circa 50 per cent of people with disability in the UK and Ireland are in employment, as opposed to Malta’s 4.5 per cent.”

The Equal Opportunities Act and the two per cent quota for businesses employing more than 20 people have not produced the desired results in terms of employment and the disabled in Malta, he said.

So what are factors responsible for the current situation? According to Mr Rizzo, they are numerous and multifaceted.

He recalled some of the points raised by Alan Roulstone during a public lecture held in December about the barriers to employment faced by disabled young people.

Prof. Roulstone had stated that low participation in the labour market may not necessarily be attributable to the disability itself but to factors such as credential inflation – the devaluation of academic credentials.

Mr Rizzo believes that the ETC could perhaps help by guiding employers for the qualifications to request. A clerk, for instance, does not require a degree.

Another factor is that while, in mainstream education, people with disability have the assistance of Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), this assistance is drastically reduced in post-secondary education and during employment (by means of job coaches).

Family overprotection also needs to be factored in. “It is important that we engage the parents in their children’s transition. Perhaps we should be inviting parents to sell to other parents programmes such as Job Bridge,” said Mr Rizzo.

“Since they share the same concerns, parents tend to trust the experiences of other parents in the same situation. Part of the solution is that we need to give them a voice.”

Another point raised by Prof. Roulstone was that information regarding job opportunities suited to their abilities was not readily available. This made young people doubt whether they were workable.

The key for this initiative will be to focus on our Maltese young adults’ abilities rather than disabilities

“This provided food for thought on how perhaps the ETC could record employment opportunities on its website,” Mr Rizzo said.

In the second half of this year, the ETC will be piloting a ‘self-employment’ workshop, with funding from the European Social Fund, for some 120 individuals. They will be engaged in areas such as document management, call centre operation and data processing.

“The key for this initiative will be to focus on our Maltese young adults’ abilities rather than disabilities – the emphasis will be on their workability (productivity) rather than on forced employment (known locally as the ‘quota act’).”