DABEI: Digitalisation in the company-based training of persons with a disability
An individual project of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training
The increased professional integration of people with a disability is becoming ever more important in Germany. Companies are implementing the objective of inclusion and at the same time are responding to skilled worker shortages. Digitalisation provides a range of opportunities for supporting people with a disability in the world of work and in company-based training. For example, when companies use accessible software and learning media within training, it becomes easier for people with a disability to participate in professional life.
Increasing digitalisation is having far-reaching effects on the world of work and therefore also on company-based training. All economic sectors and most companies are now being affected by digitalisation. In large-scale industrial companies, the issue of workforce initial and continuing VET as preparation for the challenges of work contexts involving high-level technology is already on the agenda and relevant strategies are being developed. At the same time, the integration of people with a disability is becoming increasingly important in view of the inclusion objective but also due to the increasing skilled worker shortages. In fact, around a quarter of companies authorised to provide training have disabled trainees or have taken on young people with disabilities over the past five years. Nevertheless, those with a disability are less likely to be employed on the primary labour market.
Very little is known regarding the impacts of digitalisation on the willingness of companies to offer training to people with a disability. The central question for the project is therefore the extent to which increasing digitalisation inhibits or promotes inclusion in terms of company-based training of the people with a disability (the digital divide). To find answers, analyses will be conducted within the project on the basis of an additional module of the BIBB establishment panel on qualification and competence development (BIBB Qualification Panel). As part of this, in addition to looking at the company's digital capabilities in a general sense, the use of tools, assistive technologies and accessible software and learning media will also be examined in the context of the participation by people with a disability in company-based training.