Four leading disability employment providers have collaborated and successfully secured funding from the European Social Fund to extend employment support services to people with sensory impairment across West Wales & the Valleys (WWV). JobSense WWV will help people, aged over 25, with a sensory loss, to secure volunteering and/or employment.

As 1 in 5 adults in the UK are deaf or have hearing loss, and experience difficulty accessing employment, and only 27% of blind and partially sighted people are in employment, the JobSense project will provide much needed support to enable those with sensory loss to access employment and volunteering opportunities.

 The JobSense project uses specialist employment advisers and aims to support 232 people experiencing sensory loss, who are currently economically inactive or long term unemployed. The vocational support aims to provide a range of person-centred activities, including:

• Completing work experience, or volunteering opportunities
• Gaining a qualification or work relevant certificate
• Providing the skills to engage in job search upon leaving
• Entering employment upon leaving

JobSense staff will work with employers to ensure that participants receive support during recruitment, so that the needs of people with sensory loss entering their organisations, is managed in an accessible and sustainable way. By doing this, they will break down barriers people with a sensory loss can face at work.

This project will be delivered across West Wales & the Valleys, in partnership with

ELITE Supported Employment Agency, COS (Centre of Sign, Sight and Sound), Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind & Agoriad Cyf.

Welsh Government Minister for Economy, Vaughan Gething MS, said:

“I’m very pleased that we are able to extend the excellent work which has been undertaken by JobSense East Wales, by providing specialised support for people with sensory loss to enable them to enter or re-enter the workplace across the rest of Wales.

The COVID 19 pandemic has brought a period of disruption and changes to the labour market with some of the hardest hit people being those entering the labour market for the first time or with lower qualification levels and those who face existing labour market disadvantage or barriers into employment. As part of our efforts to kick-start a strong economic recovery, we want to help create new jobs, especially in the industries of the future, provide wide ranging support for workers in a fast changing economy and find new ways to reach those most impacted to improve their employability.

The Welsh Government’s upcoming Employability Strategy will highlight support available for individuals, particularly those most impacted by the pandemic and who have difficulties accessing the labour market.”

ELITE CEO Andrea Wayman stated, “We are extremely pleased as a partnership to be awarded the funding for the JobSense Project in West Wales and the Valleys, by the Welsh European Funding Office. This will make a considerable difference to the employment support needed by people with sensory loss to gain employment skills and enter the world of work”.

When designing the new logo, it was important to keep accessibility at the forefront of the design, so feedback was sought from a number of people with sensory loss. Following the feedback, a logo with a single deep blue colour, with text remaining clear and bold was agreed. There are also several different single colour, high contrast versions – this includes white, black and yellow.

“It can be a difficult balancing act when it comes to branding and access. You want your logo to be attention-grabbing and reflect your organisation, but you also need it to be seen. The blue in some way reflects the partners as well as the funding organisation and we at COS were more than happy to suggest this as the colour choice as it also had the best chance of being seen by people with a visual impairment.

Access is the key to a project like JobSense. Access to the job market, access to training, access to support, access to information and when all that is in place, you really do get access to a life that has been denied.”

Sarah Thomas, Managing Director of COS

JobSense are holding a webinar via ZOOM on November 10, to discuss how they can help individuals and organisations that provide services for people with sensory loss. The webinar is completely free, and will be held virtually via ZOOM at the following link.

If you’re a jobseeker with a sensory loss, or an employer looking for advice, please contact us on (01685) 370072 and our team are happy to discuss how we can support you.