Careers

Learning and Development

The workforce

Disability Workforce Learning and Development

A Literature Review

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Executive Summary

This paper reviews some of the literature relating to the Victorian disability sector and its workforce, the disability policy context and training issues, as well as disability directions and workforce issues in three countries overseas.

The vision articulated in the Victorian State Disability Plan poses a training challenge to both the workforce and people with disabilities. A review of the Victorian workforce shows that it is divided between government and non-government disability services, employs over 11,000 staff, is predominantly female, has less ethnic diversity than the community as a whole, and is an ageing workforce. Much of the work is part time or casual. One third to half of workers have TAFE qualifications whilst around a fifth of the workforce have no qualifications.

Since the early 1990s, there have been a series of training initiatives directed to the sector. However recent reports indicate that there are major issues with the quantity, consistency and quality of at least some of this training. There is call for industry wide initiatives in learning and development to equip the sector to meet the challenges of new ways of working with people with disabilities, and to reposition itself as an ‘industry of choice’ and address emerging workforce capacity issues. The training being undertaken by people with disabilities is limited, or subject to barriers which impact on their potential success.

Studies of what factors impact on training effectiveness indicate that the two most important factors are: the presence of a learning culture in the workplace; and management support for training evidenced in the business strategy. ited Kingdom, United States and New Zealand indicate that both the UK and NZ have recently developed national strategic visions for disability, and in both cases these have led to current workforce reviews with attention to training. In the US, the country is facing similar workforce issues to Australia, UK and NZ, but has not yet adopted a national strategic vision for people with disabilities.