Vital Skills Needed for Vocational Training of Adults with Special Needs

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to explore the skills description, skills needed and the problems encountered of parents, SPED educators and store managers towards vital skills needed for vocational training of adults with special needs specifically in housekeeping, massage & spa and food & beverage services to obtain recommendations for the improvement of Individualized Education Plan for transition program to vocational training to achieve the required skills for employment. The study was anchored on the theory of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by Lev Vygotsky. A descriptive phenomenological method was used to analyze and interpret the data from the purposely selected 20 participants through online interviews that were transcribed, coded, clustered and formed themes. The emerged themes for housekeeping services are: household chores skills, work ethics and safety measure skills, prerequisite skills and consistent monitoring of skills. For massage and spa service: fine motor skills, knowledge of equipment, dos and don’ts at work and socio-emotional and communication skills. For food and beverage service: food preparation, functional academics, safety measures and sanitation and behavioral and socio-emotional skills. Practicing household chores, process of food preparation and work attitude skills such as time awareness, money literacy and academic functioning are vital skills needed for vocational training of Adults with Special Needs (ASN). Developing prerequisite skills through their developmental domains such as cognitive skills, socio-emotional skills, behavoral skills, communication skills and fine motor skills are necessary to be trained earlier in catering their needs in special education. Safety measures and sanitation skills are to be trainied for ASN’s vocational training since it is important to have knowledge of equipment, safety in the work procedure and sanitation in workplace. It is highlighted to establish strong support system and collaboration of home-school-community to bridge the skills from a workplace to be trained at school and home. Teachers should also be trained with vocational skills first so they can teach the skills appropriately. Finally, future researchers to conduct research linked in the field of special education to broaden the idea in the vocational training of skills to ASN for the full access to employment and equal opportunities.