To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning what support exists in Regional Colleges, beyond work preparation programmes, to facilitate young people with disabilities’ entry to employment.

Further Education (FE) provision is delivered to all students, including young people with learning difficulties and/or a disability, with the aim of providing them with the necessary skills to help prepare them for future employment. Provision is focussed on helping them complete their course of study and gain the qualifications, confidence and ability to progress to further study or employment.

Additional support is provided, beyond FE provision and work preparation programmes, to help colleges assist young people with learning difficulties and/or a disability in their preparation for success in their course of study and to progress.

FE colleges offer a wide range of support to these young people through their student services; learning support units; and careers guidance. In addition my Department provides funding to colleges to help them meet the cost of providing additional support to students with learning difficulties and /or disabilities to help them overcome barriers to learning and enable successful completion of their courses and progression to further provision or employment. This funding is provided from a number of sources:

Additional Support Fund (ASF) - £4.5 million per annum to help colleges provide additional technical and personal support to students with learning difficulties and / or disabilities enrolled in FE provision, as well as helping colleges meet the cost of providing smaller class sizes and classroom assistants for those students who, by nature of their learning difficulty or disability are unable to participate in mainstream provision.

Training for Success (TfS) - funding allocated to engage Disability Support Suppliers such as Disability Action, Sensory Learning Support, Cedar Foundation and Ulster Supported Employment Limited to work in conjunction with training suppliers, including FE colleges, in providing a wide range of support, including work focussed elements, to facilitate participants progression to employment, such as job coaching, advocacy with potential employers and disability awareness training for employers and colleagues of people with a disability.

Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) – to provide support for students with a disability or learning difficulty participating in higher education (HE) provision in either HE institutions or FE colleges. This funding helps meet the extra costs which may be incurred in attending a course of study, as a direct result of a disability, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty. This will ultimately improve the students’ chances of success in their course of study and help position them in securing employment.

Employment and Skills Strategy for People with Disabilities

My Department is currently developing an overarching ‘Employment and Skills Strategy for People with Disabilities’ in conjunction with key stakeholders from the local disability sector and FE colleges. The purpose of the new strategy is to improve the skills, employability, job prospects and working careers of people with disabilities in Northern Ireland. The aim of the strategy is to improve transition into and out of the various departmental services, including FE colleges and to result in more young people with disabilities achieving their employment goals.

Disability Employment Service pilot projects

In addition, in 2012 my Department’s Disability Employment Service established a two year pilot project with three regional colleges to improve relationships between respective departmental services, and enhance the transition between the college’s vocational programmes for young people with the labour market. The majority of the students involved have a learning disability, with others having Autistic Spectrum Disorder and other conditions. Since 2012, 132 students have been referred to the project. Forty eight students have secured paid employment with the assistance of departmental provision, including the Youth Employment Scheme, Workable (NI) and Access to Work (NI).