The number of students with a disability or long-term health condition attending university continues to increase year on year. Like their non-disabled counterparts, they choose to go to university for a variety of reasons, including to pursue a particular career or to enable them to get a better job than they would otherwise have done.
However, it remains considerably harder for them to find employment upon graduating than for their non-disabled counterparts; and research shows that disabled graduates at all qualification levels are less likely to have obtained full-time employment than non-disabled graduates.
To address this issue, careers advisers and employability teams, student support staff and academic staff with a wider employability remit, must all understand the specific challenges facing disabled students as they transition from education to employment, and be able to support them with specialist information, resources and advice.
How can we help?
MyPlus offers university staff a practical and affordable programme of training events to support them to understand and address the specific challenges facing disabled students looking for a job, internship or placement.
In addition, our Be Disability Confident on Campus Toolkit provides information, resources and guidance to careers and employability staff.
We can also work with universities on an individual basis to provide bespoke student or staff training and consulting depending on your needs.
University careers services have a vital role to play in ensuring that disabled graduates have the tools they need to realise their potential and gain employment in roles that fit in with their career plan.
- Lord Shinkwin
