Abstract
Despite the substantial increase in the access of people with disabilities to higher education, university institutions continue to be an exclusive environment for people with intellectual disabilities. This paper aims to present a training programme for the employment and university inclusion of young people with intellectual disabilities at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain, under the title “Training for the employment and autonomous life of people with intellectual disabilities”, which was launched in the academic year 2017–2018 and has already completed four editions. The programme includes a hybrid training system with specific university training oriented towards employment and autonomy together with inclusive training in subjects of various university degrees. The training is provided by interdisciplinary university lecturers together with support staff specialised in intervention with people with intellectual disabilities who come from experienced community associations. Other components of the experience include internships in companies, individualised academic tutoring of students, family accompaniment, and community inclusion with the use of the university residence as accommodation. Cognitive accessibility and new technologies are not lacking as supports in the process. This work shows the assessment of the fundamental actors of this experience during the four years of its development, and as a conclusion, it shows a high overall satisfaction with the programme and the radical change observed in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities after their time at the university.
Highlights
In a decade, attention to students with disabilities has become a quality standard in the framework of the European Higher Education Area
Methodology of the Training Experience. The objectives of this programme are: (1) to involve the University in the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities through training and the improvement of their employability; (2) to provide university training to young people with intellectual disabilities focused on improving their autonomy, their humanistic training, and their labour preparation; (3) to provide these young people with the necessary skills to increase their possibilities of labour insertion, accessing jobs in the modality of employment with support; (4) to provide inclusive experiences and normalisation within the University
Social and academic skills, motivation for the course, and specialized support needs are evaluated. This degree is taught face-to-face on the Campus of the public University Pablo de Olavide of Seville, with five days a week of classes preferably in the morning and located in a classroom of those destined for the Faculty of Social Sciences and those located in areas of great concurrence and passage of students of the Degrees
Summary
Attention to students with disabilities has become a quality standard in the framework of the European Higher Education Area. Assessment and Accreditation includes several aspects related to equal opportunities for students with disabilities in the evaluation and verification of official degrees in Spain. Universities do not offer the same opportunities to all students with disabilities. People with intellectual disabilities are mostly excluded from the higher education environment. Recent studies focus on analysing the barriers to achieving the degree of educational inclusion that the non-disabled population achieves [1,2,3,4]; others have focused on access to university studies [5,6,7] or in the attitude of teachers [8], among others. A new trend towards the analysis of positive conditioning factors is beginning [9] which allows the foundations for good performance to be laid
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
