Heads Up Workshop

This is a fantastic opportunity for 30 students and graduates with disabilities. Please email linda.kelly@ahead.ie to reserve a place. 

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Week in Review

Lots of links this week, many focusing on Ruairi Quinn and the appointment of his new adviser, Journalist John Waters as well as his focus on improving literacy. It’s also Organ Donation Week this week and there has been a lot of coverage of this and the proposed new system of ‘opting out’.

Also came across this great initiative for students trying to decide what they want to do in college: http://courseinsights.com/

• Commissioner for Human Rights speaks out against denial of voting rights to people with disabilities
• Concern at ADHD medication rates
• Mother calls for warning on medicines
• Thousands of children on ADHD drugs
• Call to fund fight against falling literacy levels
• Man’s will is changed to provide for disabled daughter
• Warning to litigant on Mental Health Act challenge
• Online job hunting – don’t be fake, a flake or get pictured naked
• C&AG probes ‘unlawful payments’ at universities
• Pitching second nature, despite player’s disability
• Disability Voice: An inside view on disability in Europe (Newsletter)
• Peking University to screen students for ‘radical thoughts’
• State to review pay of disability service executives
• What does the Teaching Council do?
• The role of the HEA should be to serve, not to command and control
• Lay off the criticism: teachers have given a lot and they deserve a break
• Tributes paid to fearless champion of the disabled
• Disabled athletes get facilities scheme boost
• Get On Board for Youth Mental Health Campaign
• ‘I know I can only get the call for a transplant after somebody else’s tragedy’
• Quinn appoints journalist as adviser
• Concern over fall in organ donations
• How to boost organ donation (Letter to the Editor)
• Permission of family still needed with new ‘opt out’ organ donation system
• Special Olympics honour for dune-buggy victim
• Accessibility Guides for Businesses and Government Organizations
• Education editor to take up role with minister
• Words fail us — why the minister wants to improve literacy . . .
• Labour looks to Scottish Model
• Advocacy service for people with disabilities launched
• Older mental health clients to return to revamped unit
• Group president to school Quinn on issues facing secondary system
• Service aims to give disabled and vulnerable people a stronger voice
• Hundreds attend funeral of disability rights campaigner the Earl of Dunraven
• Simplistic approach ‘distorts university rankings’
• Tackling the decline in organ donor rates
• Calls for fresh safeguards against use of forced ECT
• 2012 disability ticketing set out
• Delay in resettling disabled patients sparks legal action
• Centre for Disability Law & Policy NUI Galway & Harvard Law School Project on Disability to Hold Summer School in June
• Quinn warned of funding challenge in education
• First Minister repeats call for single education system
• Burton won’t say if benefit cuts will be reversed

• Testing won’t boost literacy rates (Letter to the Editor)

• Cuts to special needs resources deplorable (Letter to the Editor)

 

I’m ready for work!

I went along with Niamh to the first Get Ready for Work seminar of 2011 the week before last in Dundalk. It was my first time going to one of these seminars and I have to say, for a day at work, I really enjoyed it! The day was focused on talking to students about selling their skills to employers and the different tools they can use to do a little bit of self investigation.

 

Harriet Andrews, the Careers Officer from DKIT recommends using the Grad Ireland Careers Report and Niamh pointed students to the new AHEAD publication on Disclosure – both very valuable in examining what you want out of your career and how to approach the very complex issue of ‘when do I tell someone about my disability?’

 

If you missed the Dundalk session – do not fear! We have another seminar coming up on the 30th March in Limerick. Check out the poster:

 

Are you ready for work?

• Have you thought about the career you would like to pursue?

• Do you know how & where to look for employment?

• Are you ready for interviews?

• Do you know how to deal with the issue of disclosure?

• Do you know how to tailor your CV for the career you want?

 

DEVELOP THE SKILLS TO MANAGE YOUR CAREER

Sign-up for this unique two day Career Skills programme for graduates with disabilities/ specific learning difficulties organised by GET AHEAD (a forum for graduates with disabilities) in conjunction with Graduate Careers Ireland (GCI), the professional body for all third level career services in Ireland.

Learn from the experts, careers advisors and employers, who will work with you to help you up-skill and maximise your opportunities to pursue the career that matches your educational and professional ambitions.

 

Where & When?

February 17th &18th 2011, DKIT

Topics to be covered will include: career decision making, job-seeking and interview skills, CV preparation, personal management, recruitment and selection processes. There will also be training and discussion on the issue of disclosure. Job preparation skills will be imparted in a hands-on approach, including lively interactive workshops, mock interviews given by HR staff from different companies and seminars by professional recruitment specialists.

For further information or to reserve a place on the next programme, please contact: Linda Kelly at linda.kelly@ahead.ie

Places are limited so please apply ASAP!

 

 

GET READY FOR WORK 2010

Get Ready for Work is back!

Get Ready for Work – Careers Seminars for graduates with disabilities/ specific learning difficulties.

GetReady4Work_flyer 2010

005_Get Ready for Work A4_FOR WEB

DEVELOP THE SKILLS TO MANAGE YOUR CAREER

Sign-up for this unique two day Career Skills programme for graduates with disabilities/ specific learning difficulties organised by GET AHEAD (a project of AHEAD) in conjunction with Graduate Careers Ireland (GCI), the professional body for all third level career services in Ireland.

Learn from the experts, careers advisors and employers, who will work with you to help you up-skill and maximise your opportunities to pursue the career that matches your educational and professional ambitions.

Where & When?

June 10^th & 11^th WIT

June 21^st & 22^nd DIT

Topics to be covered will include: career decision making, job-seeking and interview skills, CV preparation, personal management, recruitment and selection processes. There will also be training and discussion on the issue of disclosure. Job preparation skills will be imparted in a hands-on approach, including lively interactive workshops, mock interviews given by HR staff from different companies and seminars by professional recruitment specialists.

For further information or to reserve a place on the next programme, please contact:

Niamh Hayes, GET AHEAD Project Co-ordinator

getahead@ahead.ie, 087 9631429

Places are limited so please apply ASAP!

 

Graduate Careers Fair, in the RDS, tomorrow, 21st October

Myself and John Paul from WAM will be at the Graduate Careers Fair in the RDS all day tomorrow. It starts at 11 and runs till 5 and you can check out their site here

More importantly, at 3:30 I’ll be giving a short seminar which will cover all the extra aspects of jobseeking that are useful for graduates and students with disabilities to know: disclosure, grants and funding, legislation and the availability of other projects and supports. It’s the ideal time to get an overview of things that you should consider if you are a graduate with a disability, or for that matter, someone who is supporting/ advising a graduate with a disability. All the matierial is taken from Get Ready for Work, so it really is an overview of the extra stuff – I won’t be going near CVs, interview skills, what job you should do, or anything like that, because that’s all covered by others whose speciality it is. For more information about the timetable of seminars you can check here.

Obviously, we’ll be at the stand all day to answer any questions and would be very happy to see you, but I would encourage you to drop along to the seminar, it’s just a half an hour and could answer many of your questions in a more useful way.

As I’ve said before, events like this are what you make of them, and I’ve outlined some suggestions here, and so have GradIreland, here.

If you’re there tomorrow, do drop by, and do enjoy the day. Opportunities can be exciting and challenging, and that can be something to relish and enjoy!

 

Interesting fact

In an AHEAD/TNS MRBI survey 2 years ago 73% of employers said that graduates with disabilities should disclose.

Disclosure comes up frequently for graduates with disabilities when we’re talking to them and is a session in the Get Ready for Work seminars, especially in relation to invisible disabilities.

BUT

Irish legislation* makes no reference to disclosure of disability*. Nothing says you do or don’t have to disclose your disability.

I find this rather frustrating but also rather interesting.

____________________________________________________________

*I am referring to the Disability Act 2005, the Equality Act 2004, the Equal Status Act 2000, the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Health, Safety & Welfare at Work Act 2005

*The Employement Equality Act and the Equal Status Act both refer to the disclosure of information in the context of the equality tribunal or the labour court, but make no reference to disability