Supporting School Transition and Meaningful Work for Youth with Disabilities in Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Countries: Comparison of Initiatives in Asia

• In Event: Transitions from School to Work: How Barriers and Opportunities for Youth with Disabilities Vary by Context

Proposal

Youth with disabilities face many challenges globally in terms of meaningful work and community engagement (World Bank, 2023), but are the challenges the same across low-, middle-, and high-income countries? Three recent initiatives in Bhutan, Malaysia, and Singapore suggest that there are differences between countries in different economic contexts, with unique challenges and opportunities in each context. For example, in Bhutan there are many more opportunities to participate in informal and non-cash-based economic activities that may not be counted as ‘employment’ in official statistics – indeed, Bhutanese young adults with disabilities are almost universally categorized as ‘economically inactive’ according to the National Statistics Bureau (2018). Conversely, in Singapore there is very little opportunity for informal, inclusive, and accessible economic activities and young adults with disabilities face many challenges in gaining employment through the required formal processes. In this paper, I will present the results of three projects in Bhutan, Malaysia, and Singapore that were independent of each other, but focused on the themes of school-to-work-transition, inclusive employment, and meaningful community engagement for youth with disabilities. In Bhutan, we were engaged in a multi-year and multi-phase project that included a nationwide survey, political economy assessment, skills and awareness workshops, community inclusion coordinators, entrepreneurship microgrants, and an employment assessment toolkit. In Singapore and Malaysia, we are engaged in on-going projects to develop community engagement toolkits, apps, and support tools for school-to-work-transition. The findings and take-aways from these projects will be viewed through a Critical Capabilities Approach (CCA) lens (DeJaeghere et al., 2016; Johnstone & Schowengerdt, 2022). CCA suggests that supporting disadvantaged youth through education and employment goes beyond simply ‘skilling-up’ and gaining credentials and involves a complexity of socio-cultural-economic factors such as social capital, informal and formal connections, the realities of the labor market, labor laws, incentives and support for inclusive employment – particularly for private businesses, available and accessible transportation, and many other factors. The comparison method of the contexts of Bhutan, Singapore, and Malaysia will explore how the central and ‘universal’ theme of ‘meaningful work and community engagement for youth with disabilities’ – as promoted globally through the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals – is realized and understood differently across the different economic contexts. Findings of the comparison suggest that high-income countries like Singapore have more resources to support meaningful work and community engagement for youth with disabilities, but there are fewer opportunities because of school and employment competition and strict formal processes. In Malaysia, there are formal and informal opportunities to meaningful work and community engagement but less resources and support available from the government and so youth with disabilities have more freedom but also more pressure to determine their own path. In Bhutan, there is very little support and resources available to support employment and school-to-work-transition, but there are more opportunities for informal and meaningful work and tighter community connections and social capital. These findings suggest that there should be learning across economic contexts, with lessons from both directions of low- and high-income countries.

Author

• Matthew Schuelka, Fora Education & University of Minnesota