Employment Consultant Training

Development of an Employment Consultation Staff Training Model for Workplace Inclusion

Project Description

Ensuring an adequate supply of well-trained staff skilled in facilitating social inclusion and natural supports on the job has been an ongoing challenge in vocational rehabilitation. Without access to validated staff training in more sophisticated strategies, job support staff continue to employ the familiar and traditional “job coach” model. This project will develop a method of online instruction and evaluate its effectiveness in improving employment outcomes.

The Employment Consultant Training project is developing and evaluating a method of online instruction to teach employment specialists, job coaches, and other direct service employment staff how to maximize the social inclusion and natural supports of employees with disabilities into the workplace. Staff will register for and complete a four-block online instructional module that teaches strategies for analyzing workplace cultures and planning for natural supports and workplace inclusion, with guided facilitation by the project investigators.

In year one, along with staff from New Hampshire, staff from Vermont and Maine will participate, and in year two, registration will be extended to Massachusetts and New York. Following successful completion of training, participants will implement the strategies with a consumer to whom they are assigned to provide job support and complete mailed surveys and participate in interviews and focus groups to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and make revisions to the instructional module.

Site visits will be used to assess fidelity to the model and provide technical assistance. Data will be collected on number and type of employment consultation strategies, level of inclusion of employees, and direct service support time.

The final revised training module will be made available to community rehabilitation programs nationwide in year three. The project will result in the availability of low-cost training for staff in evidence-based strategies to improve the employment outcomes for employees with significant disabilities and the capacity of employers to support a diverse workforce.

The Employment Consultant Training project is funded by a three-year, $600,000 grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, grant number H133G100176.