#052: Creating a Pathway to Employment, with Joe Dale
Eric GollEpisode Description
Joe Dale and I explore the untapped labour pool of people with disabilities, uncover the benefits of employing people with disabilities, and discuss approaches people with disabilities can take to gain employment.
Today businesses are asking, ‘Where do we find good people?’, and people with disabilities are asking ‘Where do I get a job?’. This podcast/ blog with Joe Dale, Executive Director of the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN), explores these questions.
Joe has worked in the field of disability for over 35 years and spent much of that time addressing issues related to employment for people with disabilities. He is an internationally renowned speaker, speaking to business, governments, and not-for-profits on the issue of strategic engagement of people with disabilities in the workforce.
The Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN)
ODEN is a professional body of employment service providers united to increase employment opportunities for people who have a disability. They have over 110-member agencies, all in the business of helping people with a disability get into the workforce.
ODEN focuses on 4 core areas:
Engaging and educating businesses on hiring people with a disability. They also support businesses to develop successful hiring practices.
Supporting disability employment agencies with training that builds their capacities and skills.
Advocating on employment for people with a disability to the provincial and federal governments.
Engaging and educating other stakeholders that prepare people with disabilities for the workforce, including school boards and family groups.
The Employment Landscape
Paraphrasing from the podcast, Joe shares:
“There are a lot of barriers for people with disability to enter the workforce. However, there has been a drastic change in the last couple of years. Businesses are now moving from awareness of the benefits people with a disability can provide to their business, to how do we employ people with disabilities. And, thinking about what does it look like in our workplace?
We have done a lot of awareness over the last 10 years and this is starting to pay off. Businesses are also challenged with the labour shortages, so businesses are now looking at what was once considered non-traditional labour sources.”
Currently the unemployment rate is 5.5% in Canada, but what does that look like for people with disabilities?
Paraphrasing from the podcast, Joe shares:
“Statistics Canada reported that 49% of people with disability are not in labour market. This doesn’t include people who have never had a job or have given up on trying to find a job. For the 51% of people in the labour market, we are seeing anywhere between 16 – 25% employment rate. From this, we can assume people with a disability that are not working in Canada is around 70%.
In the US, they do their research differently, they show about 18% of people with a disability are working.”
What Do Businesses Need to Know About Disability?
Paraphrasing from the podcast, Joe shares:
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