Isett Seta has spent R36 million in support skills development for people with disabilities. The organisation says it also entered into partnerships with stakeholders to ensure that projects for disabled learners become a success.
According to Isett Seta, this has given the disabled learners an opportunity to prove themselves in the workplace. “These learners received theoretical training in systems development and vital workplace experience within the field,” it says.
This learnership is aimed at empowering learners to transfer skills in the workplace, it says. “The programme involved training people with disabilities, ranging from people in wheelchairs, the deaf, post polio, partial paralysis due to strokes, and even the most physically challenged quadriplegics.”
This being a pilot project, Isett Seta says it proved to be a tremendous success, given that the permanent employment status for the learners for this particular learnership is currently sitting at an employment rate of 86%.
The tenacious mental attitude of the disabled people to succeed can be of great value to employers and all associated with them, if the disabled people can be equipped with knowledge and skills to fulfil their dreams, it says.
Not easy
Head of education and quality assurance at Isett Seta, Charlton Philiso says the authority has a responsibility to support the training and 'skilling' of people with disabilities and has, over the year, achieved this objective.
According to him, the challenge still remains securing workplaces for purposes of experiential training and employment for people with disabilities because of the unwillingness of the employers to provide such opportunities and a lax approach in terms of enforcing the Employment Equity Act.
He says the Seta is planning to escalate this matter to government and constituent employers that the training, development and employment of people with disabilities are imperative.
He added that some organisations say the reason they are finding it difficult employ disabled learners is that the process is expensive and they do not know where to get these learners.
“We will be happy to work with them in terms of addressing issues regarding people with disabilities so that this myth can be changed.”
Hard at work
Isett Seta started another project on the Systems Development NQF Level 5 Learnership with disabled learners. “On completion of the learnership, the IT industry will have disabled learners ready to tackle the ICT sector by storm.
“The learners receive theoretical training for a period lasting approximately six months. Thereafter, they are placed at various outlets to receive workplace experience and offer the host company a trained resource for the remainder of the learnership,” it says.
During the training, it became clear that instructional techniques for disabled learners required a different approach, Isett Seta says.
“Although the mental ability of the learners was considered as adequate, the inherent disabilities like speech, sight, hearing and physical ability required a different instructional methodology. This, in itself, is a challenge for all types of training for the disabled. It is not considered to be more difficult but merely different.”
According to the Seta, a very important aspect is that differently disabled persons do not want to be treated differently but applied training methodology and techniques should be adopted to enhance the stimuli for learners with, for example, a hearing, sight or mobility impairment.
“The opportunities open for trainers to adopt new methods to convey knowledge and skills are virtually unlimited and pose a tremendous challenge.”
The organisation says the complete and devoted interaction with learners during training and the experimentation with new ways to convey knowledge and skills are still considered to be the best practice.
Share