So, you’ve been awarded you degree. What now? In this new ‘age of austerity’, what are the challenges faced by disabled graduates trying to enter the job market, and what support is available?

Recently graduated? Let Able magazine be among those to say: “Well done!” Earning a degree is a real achievement, all the more so when a physical or sensory impairment, long-term health condition or learning difficulty can all-too-easily get in the way. So, well done.

At the risk of being the unwelcome ghost at the banquet, however, have you graduated at the wrong time? You know – all those cuts announced in the recent ‘austerity’ budget, the rumours of a potential 1.3 million job losses across the British economy during the next five years, and talk of up to a quarter million graduates chasing just 35,000 graduate entry level jobs in the UK this year.

When you add disability or long-term health conditions into the equation – along with a host of biases and prejudices that still exist across the economy – you may well be wondering if your chances of getting a job are anything more than a pipe-dream?

UPS AND DOWNS

Jane Sherry heads the Employer & Graduate Services at Shaw Trust, a charity which helps deliver Government programmes such as Work Step and the New Deal for Disabled People. She recognises that opportunities for disabled graduates have fluctuated in recent years. “When the financial sector collapsed, so did many of their graduate programme opportunities,” she recently told Able magazine. “Traditionally, some of the banks had been quite proactive in working with disabled candidates and attracting them to their graduate programmes – as were other organisations in the financial sector. Since the financial collapse, we’ve seen those positions gradually come back and we’ve seen financial and other organisations become much more proactive – so that’s very encouraging.”

Tab Ahmad, is the founder and Managing Director of EmployAbility, a not-for-profit organisation which focuses specifically on advising disabled students and graduates in the transition from education to employment and works with numerous leading ‘disability inclusive’ graduate recruiters. “About 18 months ago I really wasn’t sure how the economy was going to impact on a lot of the organisations we work with, and how they recruit graduates or respond to diversity,” she admitted. “Most employers have not stopped recruiting graduates; they may have cut back on other staff, but they haven’t with graduates – or not as much as expected.

“Yes, it’s tough; yes it’s competitive, trying to get onto a graduate programme,” she added. “Most of the companies we work with are very high profile, so it’s always very competitive; applying through EmployAbility isn’t an easy route into graduate employment, but it is there to level the playing field for someone with a disability.”

DISABILITY ISSUES

The first challenge facing most disabled graduates in the job market is simply finding ‘disability friendly’ or ‘disability knowledgeable’ employers. Tab Ahmad explained: “If somebody’s disability has impacted on their grades, or the length of time it’s taken them to do their degree, then often candidates don’t know how to talk to employers about that. Maybe they were unwell during that period of time or had an undiagnosed condition like dyslexia, so didn’t have the support in place.”

“Many of the traditional graduate employers are now actively working to build diverse workforces and have disability friendly policies,” Jane Sherry added, “although the challenge we find is that while HR and Graduate Recruitment understand the benefits of employing disabled graduates, it doesn’t mean that the rest of the organisation is working in line.” However, Jane is the first to volunteer that the vast majority of graduates – including disabled graduates – don’t enter the workforce through formal graduate schemes.

Another big issue is the question of ‘disclosure’. Tab Ahmad explained: “Graduates don’t know whether they should disclose their disability, or how they should – and how it will be received.” A combination of these issues can make it feel quite difficult for disabled students and graduates to approach the job market in the way that a non-disabled graduate might.

LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD

Employers increasingly bemoan the fact that too many graduates come to them with academic achievements but a lack of workplace skills they’re looking for – in terms of communication, problem solving, resilience and self awareness. On the one hand, disabled graduates may well have acquired, through everyday necessity, the ability to develop a wide range of coping strategies. However, disability or long-term health conditions may have indirect consequences when it comes to being ready for the job market.

Tab Ahmad said: “In our experience, a lot of disabled students and graduates want to stay in education forever-and-a-day because it’s a space they know – in reality, they’re very daunted by the world of work. Or, if they apply at all, they apply for positions well beneath their capabilities.”

Jane Sherry added: “At the risk of generalising, if somebody’s got a serious disability or health condition, they are less likely to have the same degree of work experience, simply because they had to focus on their studies – and may also have less idea about what they want to do. They may be less confident as well.”

INDIVIDUAL ADVICE

We’re all different, so it’s difficult to generalise the advice that disabled graduates need, but the most obvious is surely to get in touch with organisations such as EmployAbility or Shaw Trust – their advice, support and guidance can make a real difference for disabled graduates who, even more than most students, may have had little serious career advice.

Jane Sherry said: “The thing I always say to them is absolutely research the market place – if you want to go into HR, don’t just research HR, thoroughly research and understand the market sector of the organisation to which you’re applying. It sounds basic but so many graduates do not do this.”

Above all, though, you need to be confident. “Don’t undersell your skills and your ability,” Tab Ahmad advised. “One of the biggest problems we have in terms of disabled people not getting into employment is attitudinal barriers, and not just from employers – disabled people can themselves put up barriers, for instance, by not applying for specific jobs because they think there’ll be barriers stopping them. Always give it a go, because otherwise you’ll never know.”

MORE:

Shaw Trust

Call 07985 509 027, email gradservices@shaw-trust.org.uk, or visit www.shaw-trust.org.uk/students_graduates

EmployAbility

Call 07852 764 684, email info@employ-ability.org.uk, or visit www.employ-ability.org.uk

SHAW TRUST EMPLOYER & GRADUATE SERVICES

“We offer a range of services supporting disabled students and graduates in relation to the workplace,” Jane explained. “Our programme offers two main avenues of support for disabled graduates. A number of ‘partner’ employers ‘outsource’ their recruitment sourcing and screening of disabled candidates to us; we then support potential, disabled candidates through the whole application and interview process – including giving advice in relation to disclosure and negotiating ‘reasonable adjustments’.

“Through partner employers — including KMPG and Ernst & Young, the global IT and media company Thomson Reuters and a range of housing associations under the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Positive Action for Disability initiative – Shaw Trust offers access to a range of high quality work experience, internships or permanent employment opportunities.”

“The Trust’s Employer and Graduate Services also provides independent support and advice for disabled students and graduates – by either telephone or email – and sometimes refer them to graduate websites so they can profile their strengths and their weaknesses,” Jane said. “A lot of them still don’t have a good CV, partly because many students don’t avail of their university careers services.”

Shaw Trust is a national charity, formed in 1982, which helps people with disability or disadvantage to find work and achieve independence through both Government programmes and its own self-funded initiatives. Across the UK more than 1,600 staff oversee a diverse range of more than 200 projects.

. . .

EMPLOY-ABILITY

EmployAbility is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to assisting students and graduates – who have any form of disability, long term illness or mental health condition – into employment. Since its foundation in 1996, EmployAbility have helped more than 1,000 students and graduates to access work experience programmes and graduate roles, and provided one-to-one support to hundreds more.

By using EmployAbility, students and graduates are tapping into the knowledge of a highly experienced team who offer personalised career advice as well as current internship and graduate opportunities with an expanding list of disability-inclusive clients – including Google, Goldman Sachs, the NHS, Barclays and Barclays Wealth, Mayer Brown, and Herbert Smith.

By using EmployAbility students and graduates can also access:

• Guidance on how to write successful CVs and application forms

• Key advice on how to perform well at interviews and assessment centres

• Mock interview sessions with key employers

• Recommendations regarding ‘disability inclusive’ employers

• Advice on sensitive issues such if, when and how to disclose disability

• Information and advice regarding adjustments you may require for the recruitment process and/or in the workplace

• Opportunities to attend specialist recruitment events

To register with EmployAbility please visit www.employ-ability.org.uk/register

IS A DEGREE WORTH IT?

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, almost three in five (59%) of first degree graduates (whose post university ‘destination’ was known) in 2008/09 went into employment, down on the previous year’s 62%; slightly more – 18% compared with 17% – were involved in further study while the proportion mixing work and further study remained unchanged at 8%. The latest figures showed an increase in the proportion assumed unemployed up to 10% (2008/09) compared with 8% (2007/08).

Employment rates for full-time first degree graduates continued to vary between subjects, from traditionally high employers such as medicine and dentistry, to lower employers including Mass communications and computer science. Average salaries remained largely unchanged on the previous survey, with a mean salary of £20,500.

The Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts MP, said: “The job market remains challenging for new graduates, as it does for others. But a degree is still a good investment in the long term, and graduates have a key role to play in helping Britain out of the recession. We are committed to making it easier for current graduates to find work.”

WORDS: PAUL F COCKBURN