The Irede Foundation and ACT Foundation have partnered to launch an employability programme aimed at enhancing employment opportunities for individuals living with disabilities in the country.
According to the partners, the collaboration seeks to improve the employability of PWDs and create a more inclusive society where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and succeed.
The employability training programme was held recently in Lagos.
The guest speaker at the launch, Lead HR Operations at Irede Foundation, Ms Oluwaseun Ayodeji-Cole, said, the foundation was established to inspire actions for child amputees and young persons with disabilities so that they could live an independent and limitless life.
“This is the journey of a change program in partnership with ACT Foundation to equip persons with disability with leadership and employability skills for them to thrive in the workplace,” she stated.
She urged state governments to implement the law that mandated them to employ persons with disability to drive inclusion.
According to Ayodeji-Cole, promoting inclusion does not require a complete overhaul of the system.
Meanwhile, she emphasised the need for organisations to conduct audits to ensure they are accommodating persons with disabilities in the workplace.
Ayodeji-Cole stressed that putting a ramp at the entrance of organisations would go a long way to assist people with disabilities using the wheelchair to access a building.
“Policies that can be modified to ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities even in the hiring process. These things are small things that organisations can start to do pending when the big things are then implemented.
“The partnership is set to train 50 persons with disabilities and 15 of them would be shortlisted to be placed for internship with various organisations. As much as we are preaching that organisations should adopt persons with disabilities into the workspace, we are also trying to get ready persons with disabilities to fit in into the workplace which is the essence of this training.” Ayodeji-Cole added.
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