Keynote presentation at UEmploy international Conference: Iasi, Romania, 8 November 2012

1. UEmploy:
Citizenship, Rights and Employment:
UEmploy and inclusive strategies for a changing
Europe
Dr. Alan Bruce: Universal Learning Systems, Ireland
UEmploy Conference: Iasi, Romania
8 November 2012

2. Background: UEmploy
 The role of the European Union in social
policy measures
 Traditions of national systems
 The Lifelong Learning Program
 Lisbon Agenda (2000)
 From policy to action

3. Achievements
 European Research Report
 National Reports
 Consultancy Tools: people, training, interventions
 eLearning
 Linkage and Networks

4. Three common elements
 State
 Employment
 Disability

5. Globalization in focus
 Global change:
urbanization, migration, media
 The total marketplace
 Comparative analysis
 Speed of communications
 Demographics
 Development and transformation
 Anticipating the future

6. Implications
The emergence of a true global
economy dictates a new role in
international activities to promote the
well being of persons with disabilities
through access to jobs, better
technology and social supports...
Source: NIDRR Long Range Plan 1999-2004

7. Policy landscapes: workforce
development
Recommendations or enhancing the existing workforce
development platform focus on three future priorities:
1. Support for Universal Design principles
2. Capacity and community building across stakeholders
3. Expansion of Ticket-to-Work and Self-Sufficiency
program
Golden, T. et al, Rehabilitation Research, Policy and Education, NCRE, Vol. 26, Num.
1, 2012

8. Common challenges
 Diminishing fiscal resources
 Increasing client needs (levels of
disability, socio-economic
dimensions, ageing)
 Rising unemployment rates
 Public/private fault lines
 Focus on rights
 Impact of generalized and sustained crisis

9. Professional capacity
 Recognizing differences
 Recognizing similarities
 International skills for an international
environment
 Shared learning and capacity development
 Looking at national systems with an objective
eye
 Spotting trends and patterns
 Developing applied research skills
 Comparative best practice

10. Common legacies
 Histories
of institutionalization
 Marginalization
 Linkage to rights and struggle
 Impact on family
 Medicalization
 Charity
 Media imagery

11. European rehabilitation
dimensions
 Emerging from the chaos – the vision of
post-1945
 Histories of fragmentation
 The medical model and institutional care
 Lack of comparable models, methods or
statistics
 The hidden issue – legacies of genocide
and eugenics
 From care to inclusion – policy divergence

12. European vocational
rehabilitation systems
 National divergence
 Historic patterns of care
 Charity and welfare
 The impact of war
 The role of the State
 Links to independent living

13. Outlining UEmploy
 Background and rationale
 The role of EU supported projects
 The partnership profile:
 Romania
 Bulgaria
 Hungary
 Finland
 Ireland

14. Critical outcomes
 Employer consultancy
 Job analysis
 Advice and consultancy
 Using shared international perspectives
 Linkage with North America
 Engaging disabled citizens
 Benchmarking best practice
 Developing networks

15. UEmploy: process themes
 Developing shared understanding
 Engaging diverse national partners
 Developing communications
 Enhancing dialogue and defining
mythologies
 Avoiding assumptions
 Using advanced ICT
 Products and deliverables

16. European Report
 Significant drop in living standards since 1990 in
East/Central Europe. Impact of transition to market
economy.
 Generalized impact of crisis in all countries since 2008
 Laws, where they exist, are not enforced or only
partially understood.
 Statistics are unreliable.
 Awareness is poor or uneven
 Categories used are unclear or often overlap
 Service provision is highly fragmented
 Evidence of inherent discrimination through the use
of quotas and other measures

17. European employment issues
 Companies and employers lack
knowledge, awareness and skills
 Policy and strategy is often aspirational but not
supported by tools and practice
 Invisibility of disability in public or employment
related discourse
 Medicalization
 External impetus for national legislative and policy
initiatives
 Unfolding process of awareness raising
 Staff training and professional development
completely neglected

18. European trends
 Need for Human Rights based approach is identified
 Fine in theory but issues remain about practice
 Impact of generalized unemployment rates
 From punitive systems to employ to quality measures
that produce shared benefit
 Strong legacy of segregation has a significant
impact
 Persisting levels of fear, ignorance or disinterest
 Need for clear policy leadership role backed up by
evidence-based best practice
 Need to relate experience of disability to wider
socio-economic and demographic trends.

19. The future
 Dissemination
 Sustainability
 Added Value
 Identifying and supporting change
 End-user engagement: employers and
people with disabilities

20. Embedding creativity
 Organic, reflective evaluative follow-up
 Analysis and modification
 Lasting partnerships between research
units and schools
 Labor market transformation impact
 Organic link to work and community
 Professional passion - out of the strait-
jacket

21. Key issues
 Assessment
 Progression
 Competence
 Service models: brokers or advocates?
 Funding and resources
 Complex disabilities (dual diagnosis)
 Quality standards development
 Linkage to emancipatory research models
 Universal Design models

22. Directions
 Innovation based on questions, not
answers: avoiding mantras and clichés
 The poetry of open discovery and delight
 Constructing schools as critical spaces
 Connecting science and discovery
through technologies of emancipatory
practice
 Rediscovering community in a fractured
continent

23. Thank you
Dr. Alan Bruce
ULS
Dublin, Ireland
abruce@ulsystems.com