Internships and Mentorships
In this section:
A successful business relies on a skilled workforce, but finding workers with the appropriate skill set is often a challenge.
On the other hand, youth and adults with disabilities often cannot get the work experience that their peers typically enjoy during their high school or college years.
Internships
Internships can be a win-win strategy for employers and people with disabilities.1 For employers, the internship is an ideal opportunity to recruit and evaluate potential employees in a natural work setting. Employers may also use connections with school districts and agencies to encourage and implement practices that prepare future employees for jobs in the company or industry.
For people with disabilities, internships provide an opportunity to develop marketable job skills and test an interest in a particular field.
For tips on implementing successful internships and other work-based learning opportunities, and to learn about successful internship programs that have included people with disabilities, click here.
Next Steps
- Contact the local office of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) or Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) about starting an internship at your company. Other employment service providers and youth organizations may also be interested in working with you to place one or more interns with your company.
- If you already have an internship program, determine whether you regularly include interns with disabilities.
- Contact employers that have implemented internship programs to learn about their successes.
- Reach out to the special education department at your local high school to learn about potential internship opportunities for students with disabilities. There are also collaborative schools within the public system and private schools that serve youth with disabilities.
Resources
National Conference on Secondary Education and Transition
Read more about the experiences of the employers who have implemented internships at the National Conference on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET).
Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission
Contact information for your local Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission office can be found on the MRC website.
Contact your local school district
Contact your local school district and ask for the special education director. You can also identify and contact a public collaborative or private school that serves individuals with disabilities by searching the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP)
The WRP connects private and federal employers with highly motivated postsecondary students with disabilities seeking summer or permanent jobs. Every year, trained WRP recruiters interview more than 1,900 students with disabilities at colleges and universities nationwide. Employers can search for qualified individuals via a searchable database found here.
Emerging Leaders
Emerging Leaders is a highly competitive program that partners with businesses to place college students with disabilities in summer internships and offer them leadership development opportunities. More information about this program can be found on the Emerging Leaders website.
Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities
Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD) is an organization that works with employers to identify innovative methods of recruiting and hiring college graduates with disabilities. Membership currently includes over 400 national employers and more than 600 colleges and universities.
Disability.gov
The Disability website contains an extensive list of public and private internships that include or are specifically designed for persons with disabilities.
Collaborative on Workforce and Disability
A helpful website for employment issues such as internships.
Mentorships
Mentoring helps members of your workforce learn important skills while making connections to advance within the company. Workplace mentoring focuses on the personal and professional growth of the protégé within an occupational setting.2 Mentoring is also beneficial to organizational leaders because it gives them an opportunity to cultivate and retain talent and gain a window on the perspectives of those working in the lower levels of the organization.
Individuals with disabilities often don’t have equal access to mentoring relationships. When you include individuals with disabilities in new and existing mentoring programs, you are providing valuable opportunities to skilled workers while promoting an inclusive workforce.
Next Steps
- Consider if your company has any employees with disabilities and, if so, whether these individuals are involved, either as mentors or mentees, in a mentoring relationship.
- If your company does not have a formal mentoring program, conduct a needs assessment to determine whether such a program might be helpful to employees with and without disabilities.
- If your company has a formal mentoring program, learn if employees with disabilities have participated in the program. If possible, consider modifying your program to make it more useful for employees with disabilities.
- Utilize outside mentoring programs that might connect your company to individuals with disabilities.
Resources
Career-Focused Mentoring for Youth: The What, Why and How
A fact sheet by the Department of Labor about the basics of mentoring for youth with disabilities.
Paving the Way to Work: A Guide to Career-Focused Mentoring
A guide for individuals designing mentoring programs for youth, including youth with disabilities. Co-published by the National Center for Workers with Disabilities and the Office of Disability and Employment Policy.
ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law – Subcommittee on Lawyers with Disabilities
Mentor Program
The Mentor Program matches lawyers and prospective or current law students and recent law graduates by area of interest and geographical location.
Young Entrepreneurs Program
Partners for Youth with Disabilities (PYD)
The Partners for Youth with Disabilities guides students through the process of starting a small business in Massachusetts. The program also matches students with mentors in a specific field or business.
Disability Mentoring Day
During the month of October, individuals with disabilities (mentees) are matched with workplace mentors with similar career interests. Mentees experience a typical day on the job and learn how to prepare for the world of work. Disability Mentoring Day is a program of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).
Office of Disability and Employment Policy
The Office of Disability and Employment Policy offers numerous resources about mentoring.
Disability.gov Website
Employers interested in mentoring individuals with disabilities can find additional resources on the Disability.gov website by simply searching the word “mentoring”.
References
Hare, R. (2008). Plotting the Course for Success: An Individualized Mentoring Plan for Youth with Disabilities. Washington, D.C.: National Consortium on Leadership and Disability/Youth, Institute for Educational Leadership.
1 Padolina, P. Reaching Out to Youth: Microsoft Corporation in Luecking, R., Ed. (2004). Essential tools: In their own words: Employer perspectives on youth with disabilities in the workplace. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration, National Center on Secondary Education and Transition.
2Eby, L. T., Allen, T. D., Evans, S. C., Ng, T., & DuBois, D. L. (2008). Does mentoring matter? A multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72(2), 254-267.
