Training for People with a Disability

Five skills centres, three run by the VTC and two by voluntary agencies,
prepare disabled people for open employment or mainstream technical
education and industrial training. They provide 953 full-time places, of
which 414 are residential.

Support services provided by the VTC include a vocational assessment
service, using internationally-recognised tests and work samples designed
to evaluate a person's vocational strength and potential. Most special
school students attend a specific assessment programme in their final
school year. A comprehensive programme is used in assessing the more
complex cases.

The VTC's Technical Aids and Resource Centre designs and makes aids
for disabled people to enhance their training and employment prospects,
and provides information and resource materials on vocational
rehabilitation.

An inspectorate unit advises skills centres on administration, curriculum,
training methods and standards, and provides guidance to disabled
students on training courses. The unit works closely with the Labour
Department's selective placement service to ensure that training matches
the local employment market demand. Some 80 per cent of disabled
people completing full-time courses in technical institutes and skills
centres entered open employment or enrolled in further courses in
mainstream technical education during the year.

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