Ms Marion Wilkinson:

The NDA is finalising some work on the role and delivery of career guidance in schools. Something we did to inform our policy advice was to look at international best practice. We spoke to two groups of young people on their experience of career guidance. One was from WALK in Walkinstown. Mostly they did not have career guidance. It was through their attachment to a disability organisation, in this case WALK, that they were able to have any guidance. As Ms Shakepeare said, the person who took them to WALK was usually a parent, and specifically in the cases of the people we spoke to it was their mother. We also consulted with young adults in the Independent Living Movement. They spoke about disability and career guidance and a simple lack of access. They felt they did not belong in career guidance. The psychometric tests put in front of them were not conceived with the notion of employment in disability and the needs of the individual.

The group we spoke to had all reached a point on their path to have a career, but none of it was through the traditional delivery of career guidance. The gaps in the system were things like being told that transition year was not for them and they should just keep going. This was in a mainstream school. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in this space. Part of it is having an identity that work is for you, and having the skills to see that. There is some really good practice coming out of the Ability projects, about which Ms Shakespeare has spoken, such as goal setting tools and what they mean across different transitions in somebody's life. Those are some of the findings that will be in our work.