Transnational Cooperation for Supported Employment and Virtual Labor Market for People with Disabilities

Reducing the number of people in poverty by 260 thousand by 2020 and reaching 76% employment of the active population is fundamental to the strategy of OPHRD. People with disabilities are one of the groups, for which the active inclusion policies of the OPHRD pay the greatest attention. It is precisely by providing employment and opportunities for independent living of PwD is the direction towards their sustainable and fulfilling integration into the society. Although the Labour Act obliges employers with more than 50 staff to identify positions, suitable for vocational rehabilitation of people with permanent disability well established practices for supported employment are needed that would encourage this process on the open labour market. The project will introduce exactly those types of measures, highly needed for sustainable employment integration for PwD. The supported employment is relatively new but already proven effective practice in Europe for PwD to find and keep employment. In the 14-month timeframe of the project will be analysed, adapted and implemented from Belgium to Bulgaria two innovative social measures for supported employment – integrated model for assessing the employability and supporting the PwD in finding, adapting and keeping jobs, and providing a service for Virtual Labour Market that will facilitate the matching between the demand and the offer of employment. The project foresees sustainable transnational cooperation through additional activities for strengthening the new partnership and its capacity to implement innovative approaches. The main target group of the project are people with different disabilities on the territory of Bulgaria, who are of working age, but are unemployed or not- active (nearly 70%from the PwD). The main results of the project – implemented social innovations – will be widely disseminated and the applicant will ensure their effective use and future sustainable development.

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