| The VIPP Approach to Work |
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A transnational network of specialist disability support organisations, employers, and others has come together to develop and improve vocational opportunities to progress disabled people into open employment. The organisations are based in Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain and Bulgaria.
The project formed by the partners is named VIPP – Vocational Improvement Pipelines Project. It will develop and trial new approaches to supporting disabled people and people on long-term benefits move into chosen employment areas. The partners will work alongside employers, disabled people and other stakeholders to identify and deliver training in work competencies and social skills required to acquire and sustain a particular job role.
VIPP has established a formal network of partners dedicated to the development and exchange of best practice in vocational improvement processes in 3 key sectors – Retail, Catering and Other business (eg Administration) and will run small scale pilots from December 2005 to September 2007 to identify skills and competencies specific to the vocational pipeline and to general employability, as well as effective training methodologies and approaches that meet the needs of employers, disabled people and the targeted vocational sectors.
Innovative approaches taken by the partners will evolve as part of the project and will be desseminated and shared. Blended training solutions for trainers will also be designed.
The main beneficiaries of VIPP will be unemployed disabled people who want to work and the partnership is keen to especially target those who are furthest removed from the labour market and those who face multiple disadvantages.
Project partners have a unique blend of both experience and scale and are experienced members of local, national, European and international networks connected with the employment of disabled people. The partners are Remploy Ltd(UK), Marie Curie Association(Bulgaria), EHLABE(Spain), CEDRIS(Netherlands) SAMHALL(Sweden), UK Inspirations(UK) and USEL(Northern Ireland)
The project has also launched its own website, which is at early design stage. This can be found at www.vipp.org.uk. It is planned that this website will be updated regularly as the project progresses to enable all stakeholders to share in the knowledge of actions undertaken and achieved by the project and to enable transferability and dissemination links to evolve in order to ensure greater levels of shared participation.
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| G Mills |
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