“Employers and their HR teams should know that we are diverse in how we cope and think of what can be done.”
A Belfast woman is on a mission to help break down barriers and stereotypes for people with disabilities in the workplace. Emily Baskerville has Asperger's Syndrome and admits that her disability comes with so many assumptions from prospective employers that getting a job, and even experience was a challenge.
Official statistics show that the employment rate for people with disabilities was just 52.7 per cent as of 2021, compared with 81 per cent for non-disabled people. In Northern Ireland, opportunities seem to be even less favourable for this group as the employment rate for them is far lower at 38 per cent.
The first of its kind in Northern Ireland, the project places university leavers with various businesses in paid placements for the duration of four months. It’s being delivered in partnership with Ulster University Business School which provides additional workplace training for the successful applicants.
Graduates on the programme were placed with three large IT companies , four quasi-governmental bodies , seven with not-for-profit organisations and six with small businesses.“My current employers have been great to me, though I and they found that hardly any adjustments had to be made,” she said. “I found it enjoyable,” she said, adding: “From the actual work to the events I have helped at, plus work activities, I could not have asked for a better placement.”
Lorraine Acheson Managing Director of Belfast based Women in Business NI who hosted Emily, said the programme allowed the organisation to “live up” to their diversity and inclusion values.
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