To ask the Minister for the Economy (i) what steps he will take to encourage employers to hire people with disabilities; and (ii) how he will better support those with disabilities in securing work.

I am keen to ensure all people in our society are given equal opportunity to use the skills they have and obtain good jobs.

My department provides several programmes to support people with disabilities to access employment or access training which will help them secure employment. For instance, the Disability Support Service helps those with disabilities participate in the vocational training programmes Skills for Life and Work and ApprenticeshipsNI. Skills for Life and Work also has an extended age eligibility for young people with a disability while a disability supplement is payable to allow training suppliers to provide additional support to apprentices participating on the ApprenticeshipsNI programme.

Separately, the Disability Access to Education and Employment programme (DARE) is a strand of the Department’s Step Up project which offers support to those with a disability to progress into work. It also encourages employers to review their policies to ensure that these are effective in recruiting people with disabilities.

Within Further Education Colleges the Additional Support Fund helps provide the necessary additional technical and/or personal support required to allow students with learning difficulties or disabilities to participate in mainstream Further Education courses or in discrete programmes.