Destination and occupational and social integration of young handicapped people after their initial vocational training

Abstract

"The crux of this article is the occupational situation of young handicapped people after their initial vocational training completed in rehabilitation centres or in private firms - in other words the type and conditions of their first job, their occupational consolidation, and also integration which is not matched with training, unemployment etc. (Their vocational training was financed by the Federal Employment Services in the context of the Employment Promotion Act con-cerning vocational rehabilitation.) An attempt is made when considering the further career of these young people, to distinguish between 'destination' on the one hand and occupational and social 'integration' on the other hand. 'Destination' is usually understood as what becomes of the person conserned following a certain event in their life (here the successful completion of their vocational training). It can be demonstrated, for example, that at the time the survey was carried out (second half of 1994) some three quarters (76%) of the young handicapped people were in employment, just under a quarter (24%) were not gainfully employed; around half of these were unemployed. On the basis of these statements a number of results from various groups of questions are presented. 'Integration', in contrast, concerns the integration of people into the 'structure of certain systems' (employment system, social system), which can only by assessed using operationalised (integration) criteria. In this sense occupational integration concerns not simply the practice of an occupation as such, but the integration into occupational activities in such a way that - also in accordance with the ideas of the legislator (Employment Promotion Act) - amongst other things, the 'aptitude', in particular abilities acquired so far, and the 'propensity' of the person concerned are taken into account. In a similar way with social integration, criteria on the integration into social networks, on acceptance, recognition, confirmation etc. should be taken into account. In order to assess the occupational and social integration of young handicapped people such criteria, separated for the individual forms of integration, are linked with each other according to the methodical principle of step-by-step criteria addition, so that they correspond to the pattern of logical 'and'-relations. This procedure was chosen because it must first be assumed that all of the criteria included have to be equally fulfilled in order to be able to determine integration. Accordingly, in the case of occupational integration, for example, the number of young handicapped people who fulfil all of the criteria at the same time and can consequently be defined as integrated, falls by more than half compared with the destination feature 'in employment' which was considered separately above (which was 76% when not broken down into categories). In the case of social integration, similar effects are found, although less markedly. Such findings could be an occasion for the relevant bodies to 'scrutinise' the integration process of the handicapped individuals concerned more closely with regard to 'frictions' or shortcomings. In contrast with simple destination analyses, this approach, which is being realised for the first time with regard to occupational and social integration, provides the advantage of a subtly differentiated insight into the working and living situation of young handicapped people, due to the degree to which it is elaborated. Such an insight makes it easier to locate and justify any intervention measures to be planned or introduced." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Plath, H., König, P. & Jungkunst, M. (1996): Verbleib sowie berufliche und soziale Integration jugendlicher Rehabilitanden nach der beruflichen Erstausbildung. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 29, No. 2, p. 247-278.