Support to employment agencies by organisations of the visually impaired : the Polish experience
by Teresa WRZESINSKA and Tadeusz MAJEWSKI
Introduction
It is not easy for the blind and visually impaired to find a suitable job. Therefore, their unemployment rate is very high in almost all European countries. In Poland we have 43.000 blind and visually impaired persons in the working age (18-65 years of age) and only 6.100 employed, i.e. about 15%. It means that about 85% are not vocationally active. As far as finding employment is concerned, they have two options. They can directly look for jobs themselves or to ask a specialised placement (employment) agency to find a job for them.
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1. The responsibilities of placement agencies for placement of disabled persons in Poland
In Poland there are about 400 regional placement agencies. They are responsible for finding employment not only for able job seekers, but also for disabled ones. In each of these agencies there is one or more special officers responsible for placement of disabled persons, including the blind and visually impaired. Their tasks are:
- Registration of disabled job seekers.
- Finding them suitable jobs in their region.
- Follow-up - provision of assistance to the disabled worker in adaptation to the work place in the first weeks of their employment.
- Provision of assistance to disabled persons in self-employment.
The officers are not always well prepared for their work, especially in relation to solving the vocational problems of blind and visually impaired persons. They are usually trained at special courses where they get some information on this matter. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which is responsible for the employment policy of disabled persons, published a manual for them, in which one chapter is devoted to vocational problems of blind and visually persons.
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2. Placement of blind and visually persons by the placement agencies
As far as placement of blind and visually persons is concerned, the placement agencies are not very much successful. Usually they register the blind and visually job seekers and offer them jobs which have been notified by the employers. They are not very active in looking for suitable jobs for blind and visually persons on the open labour market through personal contacts. Another weak point of the placement agencies is the follow-up. They send the blind or visually impaired person to the employer and they usually do not care more for his/her employment. As we all know - very often the newly employed blind and visually worker find a lot of difficulties in adaptation in the work place and require some assistance of another person.
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3. Action undertaken to improve the employment situation of blind and visually impaired persons in Poland
Because the placement agencies are not very effective, therefore some actions have been undertaken in Poland in order to improve the employment situation of blind and visually impaired persons. They are as follows:
- The Polish Association of the Blind prepared and published in 1997 A guidebook for blind and visually impaired job seekers. They can find information in it on: how to prepare and how to look for a job themselves, how to be employed by the employer and how keep the job. It serves the blind and visually impaired persons in active looking for a job and co-operate with the prospective employers.
- The Foundation AWARE Europe prepared and published in 2000 a Guidebook for the employers of persons with visual impairment, which covers many practical guidelines how to solve the problems related to employment of blind and visually impaired persons. All the placement agencies were provided with this Guidebook. It is also given to the employers who hire the blind and visually impaired persons.
- The Foundation also organised some pilot workshops in various regions of Poland for blind and visual impaired women on active job seeking - how to look for jobs themselves. Nowadays, the local branches of the Polish Association of the Blind organise similar workshops for unemployed blind and visually impaired women and men.
- In 2001 the Polish Association of the Blind published a book under the tittle: Profiles of blind and visually impaired workers, in which 37 blind and visual impaired worker were presented, e.g. layer, professor at the University, speech therapist, psychologist, interpreter, etc.
- The local branches of the Polish Association of the Blind organise labour exchange meetings with prospective employers and the blind and visually impaired persons looking for employment. During these meetings exhibitions of special equipment for the blind and visually impaired workers and seminars are usually organised. At the seminars presentations on the work potentials of persons with visual impairment are given by successful blind and visually impaired persons, during which they show their way to professional career.
On the occasion of the European Year of Disabled Persons - the Polish Association of the Blind plans to organise a couple of conferences on employment of blind and visually impaired persons in various regions, in which the placement officers from the regional placement agencies will be invited. This will be also an occasion to present the employment problems of blind and visually impaired persons in the mass media. Another project aimed at improving the employment situation of the blind and visually impaired is a production of a film showing the their vocational potentials.
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4. Conclusions
1. The placement agencies are not well prepared to provide a suitable jobs for the blind and visually impaired persons. They need a lot of support in solving the vocational problems of blind and visually impaired job seekers. They need theoretical as well as practical support. In particular it relates to:
- How to convince the employers to hire the blind and visually impaired persons.
- How to give advise to the employers on adaptation of the work stations and the work places, according to the needs of the blind and visually impaired workers.
- How to assist the blind and visually impaired worker in adaptation to the work place after placement (follow-up).
2. Therefore, a close co-operation between the organisations of the blind, which have a lot of knowledge and practical experience, and the placement agencies is necessary. It should cover such areas as:
- Training of the special placement officers and preparation of special training materials for them.
- Guidance on adaptation of work stations and work places for the blind and visually impaired workers.
- Joint active looking for jobs and making contacts with enterprises, which have possibilities for employment of blind and visually impaired persons.
3. In the placement agencies a special well trained officer for placement blind and visually impaired persons should be appointed. He should closely co-operate with local branches of the organisation of the blind. Another option is that such an officer should be delegated to the organisation of the blind or some funds should be given to the organisation to employ such an officer.
The Polish Association of the Blind is of the opinion that placement agencies, as a public (state) units, should not be exempted from the responsibility of placement of blind and visually impaired persons through transferring this responsibility to an organisation of the blind. However, the Polish Association of the Blind is ready to full support and co-operate with the public authorities responsible for placement of disabled persons.
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Appendix : Short description of the publications mentioned in this presentation
A guidebook for blind and visually impaired job seekers
Author: Tadeusz Majewski
published by: Polish Association of t