Australian Employers Network on Disability

Part 1: The Stepping Into Program

Mark Lazaroo and Tim Littlejohn are from the Australian Employers Network on Disability. In the first part of their combined interview they speak about the ?Stepping into' program, and how this can assist students with disabilities in their career goals.

Mark: Our organisation has seventy member employers and those employers are very keen to offer equity to people with a disability. So our organisation aims to assist those organisations to become disability confident and a big area of that is organisations looking at their application and their recruitment processes and to also make sure that there are recruiting from the entire talent pool. Increasingly that has meant employers want to make sure they are reaching people who may have a disability. In the area of graduate recruitment, it is very competitive and organisations want to be well ahead of the curve in how well they are doing that. So the stepping into programs, stepping into law, stepping into banking, stepping into information technology and stepping into business. They are programs that introduce organisations to talented graduates or pre-graduates with a disability and then those organisations can make sure they are talking the talk around including people with a disability. But also, walking the walk, in terms of offering them opportunities and allowing them to showcase their skills and talents.

What are the main challenges, do you think, that are faced by graduates with disabilities when entering the workplace?

Mark: Sometimes the graduates themselves might actually lack confidence or be unsure which employers are confident in offering equity. Graduates might actually be concerned about a whole range of issues to do with disclosing their disability. Graduates might not be sure whether the employer can make the workplace adjustments they need to be fully productive. I think that their biggest concern is that graduates or students with a disability want to make sure that they have been given a fair go and a good chance. They are actually not sure whether employers are experienced with offering the sort of workplace adjustments or workplace flexibility they need. So it is actually a range of different concerns that can sometimes seem overwhelming and I think that it is important that students don´t feel like they are actually alone in that challenge. The network sees itself as very much a solution to those concerns and also those barriers that people might think are there.

Are you saying that mainly it is a lack of information or perceived lack of support that really graduates need to overcome?

Mark: Yes, look, it is a very streamline way to actually answer most of those problems and issues. We work very closely with students and the employers around all of the issues that deal with disclosure, just to make sure that it is just on a need to know basis and that everyone is comfortable with that. Then we work very hard to make sure that the adjustments and flexibilities are identified and solutions are found to those things in a very timely fashion. I guess the main thing is to make sure that the experiences is incredibly positive so there would be games for the students to showcase what they can do with their talents. It is a great chance for them to get to know different employers and for the employers it might be the only opportunity that they get to actually see a particular workplace modification or an adjustment working. Once they have seen it, it actually means they are very confident to recruit very broadly.

Tim: One of the things that is very powerful about the program, when I go around to the marketplace and talk to current and perspective members of our network and tell them about what we do, they immediately latch onto the stepping into program. And there are always a few different reasons why they find it very exciting. There is a means for them to obviously increase their internal competency in having employees part time and work experience employees with a disability and that helps them to learn about what it means to have a workforce that is made up of a diversity of people. That is perhaps one the most compelling reasons for them to join our network so they can get access to this pool of graduates or soon to be graduates who are people with a disability. In a three way partnership, we help catalyse the graduates to meet with the employers and to develop a good relationship to both achieve their objectives.

What are the benefits of having participated in the stepping into program?

Mark: Students actually get to know different employers incredibly well so sometimes it is a very positive experience because it just renew their enthusiasm for the area that they are studying in and it actually makes them know that there is a world of work out there. They do not need to think that they are going to have smaller opportunities or less opportunities because of their disabilities that is an important thing. Sometimes students actually realise that an area they thought they wanted to be involved in they don´t want to be involved in. So you get some law students who realise that the world of litigation is not them and they would like to do much more of an advocacy role in their law practice. That in itself is a very useful thing. Students on a very practical level are offered ongoing employment opportunities as a result of the stepping into program. I think one of the main things they actually get is they get very clear feedback from the human resources teams in the organisations, about how to conduct their jobs search on graduation. Often that is very much about the HR team giving them a much wider horizon than they thought was available to them, in terms of options. Sometimes people are not so confident about their skills and the program really enforces to students that they have great skills. So it is inevitably a very encouraging process.

How long does the internship go for?

Mark: The internship goes anywhere from 4 weeks to 10 weeks. Some students find it easy to do on a full time basis for 4 weeks, other people might want to do it part time so that means their internship would go over 10 weeks. If people are requiring a lot of workplace adjustments we actually suggest they do a longer internship just to make sure we can have all of the adjustments in place, for the majority of their placement.

How does the student get involved in the stepping into program? What are the steps that they need to take?

Mark: We have application forms on our website and those actually become live in March of every year. But they would actually just go ahead and contact the employers network on disability, that is aend. We are happy to give information about where different stepping into programs are starting, usually it is the middle of the year but increasingly there is opportunities through the whole year. The stepping into program was designed for people in their final year of their studies but because the object of the program is to open doors for people and to make employers more aware about disabilities, sometimes people who have just finished their qualifications and are actually having trouble getting doors to open we will actually accept them into the program, because that is what the program is actually about. We encourage students to actually come forward for the program because it really does assist their horizons and their ability to start their career with a flying start really. To find out about the stepping into and the wham programs the Australian employers network website is www.aend.org.au and our free call number is 1300 363 645 and the main line for the organisation is (02) (for Sydney) 9261 3922.

Tim: Give it a go because it is always a good thing.