How aware are students of the Access to Work programme?

Learning Labs is part of eQuality Solutions (eQS), a group of companies that aims to unlock true potential and improve outcomes for both individuals and organisations by removing barriers to learning in education, employment, and life.

Learning Labs is an online e-learning portal which gives users access to 4,122 tutorials, or Labs, on an array of topics such as assistive technology, careers and study skills and accessibility tools. By having access to these Labs wherever and whenever they like, users are empowered to overcome any barriers independently.

Earlier this year Learning Labs also launched a brand-new mental wellness portal based on their unique concept – the Six Domains of Mental Wellness^TM. Within the mental wellness portal users can learn about mental wellness, then assess and develop their own mental wellness as often as they like via the unique assessment tool and a series of Action Labs.

The All-Parliamentary Party Group for Assistive Technology (APPGAT) consists of 14 MPs from all major parties and representatives from 32 supporting organisations from across the UK. Their aim is to disseminate knowledge, generate debate and facilitate engagement on assistive technology amongst Members of both Houses of Parliament. They achieve this by holding events in Parliament, bringing experts together for roundtable discussions and briefings, contributing to government consultations, and promoting the group and its activities amongst parliamentarians.

Earlier this year Learning Labs and APPGAT teamed up to learn what student’s understanding and experience of Access to Work was. Learning Labs sent a 25-question survey to its students that had claimed Disability Student’s Allowance during their time at university and were now in their final year of study and therefore likely to be applying for Access to Work in the near future. The survey was completed by 371 students. The most notable finding from the survey was that 80% of students had never heard of Access to Work. As a reminder, these are students that are in their final year of studies and will therefore be entering the world of work very soon.

When asked if their university provided them with any information about disability support in the workplace (for your post-graduation career) 66% of respondents said no. This explains why, out of the 19% of students who had heard of Access to Work, 33% of them had discovered it by conducting their own research.

The good news is initiatives have already been announced to try and bridge the gap between education and the workplace for people with a disability. At the beginning of December, as part of their National Disability Strategy, the government announced a new pilot ‘passport’ scheme to complement the existing Access to Work grant scheme.

The passport will contain all the necessary medical information, adjustments and benefits a graduate already receives. This will prevent them from having to undergo repeated health assessments and repetitive disclosures that are part of the job and grant application process. The passport also aims to empower the graduates and grow their confidence around having the conversations about their disabilities with potential employers.

With any effective conversation though it should not be one-sided. It’s important that everyone the student encounters along their journey to employment, from DSA Needs Assessors to Career Advisors and even employers are aware of and having open discussions about Access to Work.

Hopefully with these conversations taking place, and these new initiatives from the government, when Learning Labs and APPGAT repeat the survey over the coming years we will see the statistics flip and 80%, if not 100%, of students will HAVE heard of Access to Work.