Currently much good work is being done to enhance the training received by people living with disabilities so they have the skills required to contribute with their labour, but there is less work being done to prepare and support manufacturing SMEs in their efforts to engage people with disabilities. There is a significant need to ensure that these SMEs can face EU equality and diversity directive
s with confidence if the changes for people living with disabilities are to take place. SupportAbility has been created in order to address the gap in resources that currently stops SMEs in the furniture industry being full contributors in this field. Its core aim is to provide resources to ensure that people living with disability can secure long-term employment through SMEs being able to supply the support they require from within the workplace. To this end, the project seeks to gain access to available resources and construct new ones for SME Directors, HR Officers and other managers so they can access the information they need when employing people with disability. In addition, SupportAbility will be creating a curriculum and e-Learning platform for a VET course to train furniture industry employees to be workplace mentors for people living with disabilities, so their peers are ready to give emotional as well as practical support, both being essential during the initial phase of transition when entering a new place of work. For many SMEs, being able to have a defined strategy to deal appropriately with employees that may also have disabilities will be new. The SupportAbility Partners expect that within manufacturing SMEs, there will be a significant increase in their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in their approach to recruitment. The outputs will exist to enable SMEs to move past seeing the disability in a candidate for employment so they can engage with them as part of a team while having the confidence to deal with any special needs systemically.
