Skills for Inclusive Working - Schools in Krakow & Wien

We want to achieve better chances on the first labour market and more success in cultural and leisure activities for blind and partially sighted persons. Therefore we decided to create 4 curricula...

We want to achieve better chances on the first labour market and more success in cultural and leisure activities for blind and partially sighted persons. Therefore we decided to create 4 curricula: sound engineering, gardening, thonet weaving and work in offices for administration. The school in Krakow has a lot of experience in sound engineering, the students at the school in Vienna learn how to produce thonet weaving and others gain the certificate of the International/Eurpoean Computer Driving License (ICDL/ECDL). The new curricula should lead to the training being adapted to the needs of the primary labour market. One of the main goals for the schools in Vienna and Krakow is the inclusion of people with disabilities in society in the areas of diversity, education, training, youth and culture. Therefore, the experiences of Vienna Business School are very helpful. The target groups are mainly the students of the three schools, but we hope that the 4 curricula are able to inspire other groups to improve the chances of blind and partially sighted people in the first labour market.

The participants have mainly been teachers, but the outcome will help some target groups: blind, partially sighted and sighted students, parents, teachers, social educators, interested persons as well as authorities and organisations of and for people with disabilities. During the project, blind, partially sighted and sighted students as well as teachers learned to get to know each other better and to exchange experiences and helpful techniques. Therefore, besides online activities, personal meetings have been very important. In these meetings, beside of the work on the four curricula, inclusive and cultural activities have been very helpful.

The concrete outputs of our project are 4 curricula in German, English and Polish. The project summary on paper and in accessible digital format has been distributed to the 3 schools, students, parents, teachers, social educators, institutions, organisations, interested persons, authorities,... All these results are available on some webpages, especially at the European Project Result Platform (E+PRP). Other outputs have been published in social media. Additionally, there are a few still remaining contacts between students of different schools. The employment of individuals with disabilities remains a significant challenge, requiring action in various areas. In many cases, the expectations of jobseekers do not match the requirements of companies. 'Everyone may do everything, but not everyone can do everything.” This sentence applies to all employees and includes people with disabilities. The big advantage of this project is that many needs of different groups have been covered.