From Learning to Earning: How can inclusive education, training and aquiring skills lead to employment of youth with disabilities?

The European Parliament and UNICEF will convene a side event on the occasion of COSP18 on “From learning to earning: How can inclusive education, training and acquiring skills lead to employment of youth with disabilities?”: what does the EU need to do in terms of policy making and funding, to enhance inclusiveness of their educational systems and foster employment of persons with disabilities, especially youth?

As educational systems in the EU are struggling with cuts in spending, quality inclusive education within the meaning of Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), at all levels and from early childhood onwards, is at stake. There is a general lack of qualified teachers and educational support staff, reasonable accommodation, accessible school buildings and curricula that allow youth with disabilities to build the skills they need to navigate their lives and the open labour market. Persons with disabilities often work in protected employment schemes, such as sheltered workshops with low or no income, and their job may be unrelated to their qualifications.

Meanwhile, employment numbers for persons with disabilities in the open labour market in Europe seem to stagnate. The EU Cohesion Funds, meant to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the EU, are often used to subsidise segregated employment schemes, rather than supporting employment in the open labour market as per Article 27 of the CRPD. Only few employees with disabilities or those that are carers of dependants with disabilities enjoy disability inclusive policies or get reasonable accommodation in the workplace to perform on equal footing. Meanwhile, the EU is preparing the next multiannual financial framework post 2027 that foresees several cohesion funds and new opportunities to enhance inclusiveness. 

The side event will bring together the EU’s policy makers, including Members of the European Parliament, experts from UNICEF, young people with disabilities and representatives from organisations representing persons with disabilities to discuss how policies on supra-national and national level can strengthen inclusive education in Member States as well as foster employment of youth with disabilities, notably through better policy development and use of cohesion funds.

PROGRAMME

Moderator: Prof. Markus Schefer, UN CRPD Committee Rapporteur on the EU report

Opening video: Meet the young people advocating for inclusive education

Speakers:

• Pia Britto, Director of Education, UNICEF

• Li Andersson, Member of European Parliament, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

• Kristian Johansson Kalzén, President of the Swedish Coeliac Youth Society, board member of the Youth with Disabilities Federation Sweden 

• Inclusion International (tbc)

• Ana Carla Pereira, Director DG JUST, European Commission

• Rosa Estaras Ferragut, Member of European Parliament, Rapporteur on the Report on the EU Disability Rights Strategy post 2024, member of the EP CRPD Network and of the EP delegation to the EU CRPD Monitoring Framework

• Ioannis Vardakastanis, President of European Disability Forum 

Light buffet lunch will be available for the participants.