DFID India in collaboration with Skill Council for Persons with Disability (SCPwD) held an online workshop to disseminate the findings of an innovative pilot trainings for Persons with Disabilities which was jointly implemented in 2019-20. The pilots were implemented by training partners namely, Muskaan, National Association of Blind India Centre (NAB) and V-Shesh, with the aim to explore employment opportunities for the candidates with intellectual disabilities (ID) and visual impairment (VI) in sectors like hospitality, retail, beauty and wellness, IT and food processing.
The event was attended by over 90 participants from Government, Sector Skill Councils, governing council members of SCPwD, employers, training providers and other organisations working with persons with disability.
The unique feature of the pilot programme was that, it created recommendations for policy level changes to scale up trainings for ID and VI youth of India. This was possible by adapting standards, teacher training, on-boarding of employers from the beginning and aligning course curricula.
Ms. Anu Gupta-Head of Skills and Kaustubhi Harit-Skill Adviser, DFID India explained the importance of such interventions, which align well with DFID priorities of ‘Leave no one behind’. Mr. Anup Srivastava, CEO, SCPwD spoke about the vision behind the pilots and Ms Niharika Nigam, SCPWD presented the learnings of the pilot.
Key recommendations that emerged from the pilot include-
- Development of new QP/ NOS for persons with ID&VI
- Flexibility in entry qualification for PWDs
- Trainers, assessors, employers and peers to be sensitized about PWDs- to break myths
- Inclusion of pre-training module and increased course duration for enhanced learning
- Job Coach/ caregiver support during training period
- Facilitate usage of assistive technology/ inclusive learning material
- Promote internship/apprenticeship than theory to give practical experience to candidates
The panelists from Muskaan, NAB India and V-Shesh shared their experiences and led a deeply engaging question and answer session around the pilot. The active participants made meaningful suggestions on inclusion of people with ID and VI in skill training and employment. A summary of recommendations will be shared with the government for policy changes.
