our services
Supported Employment (SE) is a comprehensive service package for our Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) customers.
SE enables VR customers with the most significant disabilities to enter competitive integrated employment by:
Providing individualized assistance in finding an appropriate job match
Providing ongoing support services
Establishing extended services, sometimes called long-term supports, for the customer to maintain a long-term competitive integrated employment outcome by:
identifying resources to deliver the extended services
training extended services providers
confirming that extended services are in place, if needed, to make sure the job is stable
ensuring all known needs are met before achievement of SE Benchmark 6, Service Closure
By being matched to a job first and then receiving ongoing supports and training, the VR customer develops job-readiness skills while on the job. Employers are expected to provide the same training to the VR customer as the employer would provide to other new employees, with help and support from the VR Counselor and the SE Specialist.
Job Placement is a benchmark service that assists customers in preparing for and completing the job search process. Job Placement helps customers obtain a job that meets their needs.
Job Placement is a basic employment service and includes the following employment assistance:
trains and prepares customers for the job search
helps customers obtain positions that meet their individual needs
assists customers with job skills training, when necessary, to keep a job.
A customer that is placed under the Job Placement service must be place in a work environment that is:
integrated
competitive
full-time or part-time, based on customer informed choice
permanent, not temporary or seasonal.
Job Skills Training is for when a customer needs more training and support than provided by the employer. The business, customer, job skills trainer, and VR Counselor are involved in the training plan and monitor the customer’s performance. All Job Skill Training is goal-focused, with the VR customer’s goals and abilities documented.
Job Skills Training:
teaches skills
reinforces skills
develops or sets up accommodations and/or compensatory techniques to increase the customer’s independence and ability to meet the employer’s expectations.
Summer Work Experience is a paid work-based learning program for high school students with disabilities. Students will work at a local business learn the expectations and responsibilities associated with employment. In addition to their job tasks, the Work Experience will provide students the opportunity to learn all about the different aspects of the business including their products, operations, customer service, policies, hiring practices, marketing, transportation and safety.
Along with the student’s regular work responsibilities, the students will learn various aspects of the particular business they are working at. This will include products, operations, customer service, policies, hiring practices, marketing, and safety. Each week the job coach will cover a different aspect of the business with the students through discussion, hands on examples, visual aids and other learning tools, with the goal of helping them understand how the business operates and what it would mean for them to be employed there.
The Environmental Work Assessment (EWA) is a diagnostic tool that assesses how the customer responds to variables in a work environment. The EWA is an accurate assessment of the correlations between a customer’s performance and environmental variables and is critical to the customer’s ability to find and maintain employment. Results of the assessment identify the variables in a work environment that affect the customer’s ability to function at his or her full potential.
The EWA is most appropriate for a customer who:
has a neurodevelopmental disorder that significantly affects him or her;
has a history of behavior that varies depending on the environment; and
may benefit from an evaluation that assesses how his or her neurodevelopmental disorder may manifest in a work setting.
The EWA evaluator assesses the customer’s skills in at least three work (business) environments that align with his or her interests and the employment goal in the customer’s individualized plan for employment (IPE), when known. Each environment is assessed for a minimum of two hours.
The Summer Earn & Learn program provides students with disabilities ages 14-22 with work readiness training and paid work experience. Summer Earn & Learn is a statewide strategy that includes employability skills training and paid work experience for students with disabilities. Last year, more than 1,500 students across Texas participated in SEAL and worked in positions as design graphics assistants, customer service representatives, peer counselors and others, with 600 employers.
SEAL includes basic work-based learning and training services for students with disabilities that provide:
pre-employment work readiness training and preparation for the work experience placement
work experience to help participants gain familiarity with the workplace environment and develop transferable job skills and
paid compensation for time worked on the job.
Vocational Adjustment Training (VAT) is a work readiness service that prepares high school students with disabilities for competitive integrated employment. The service provides practical classroom instruction and activities that educate participants in work related topics that are necessary for employment.
VAT instruction is taught by a certified Vocational Adjustment Instructor.
Each VAT class will have six students.
Six teaching modules totaling 110 hours.
Classroom instruction will be two to five times a week.
Classroom time will be approximately 1.0-2.5 hours a day each class.
Curriculum
Explore the “You” in Work (10 hours)
Soft Skills to Pay your Bills (20 hours)
Entering the World of Work (10 hours)
Job Search Training (20 hours)
Disability Disclosure (20 hours)
Money Smart (30 hours)
VAT instructors implement our curriculum and activities using various instructional approaches, such as:
Discussions
PowerPoint presentations
Inquiry-based instructions
Hands-on experiments
Project- and problem-based learning
Computer-aided instructions
Handouts
Exercises
Journaling activities
Extension activities
Journaling activities allow customers to gain insight into their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about the content being taught and to identify skills to improve their success.
Extension activities reinforce skills and knowledge learned in the core activities offered in the service. Examples of extension activities include field trips, guest speakers, and videos that are not required in the core curriculum.
Work Experience services allow a customer to be placed at a business or agency within the community to learn skills for long-term, competitive, integrated employment. These entities are referred to as “Work Experience sites.” Work Experience services are intended to be short term (12 or fewer weeks) and part-time. Work Experience can take place in a volunteer, internship, or temporary short-term paid-work setting.
Work Experience services are available for students or youth with disabilities and basic Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) customers and may be used to determine a customer’s eligibility for VR.
Work Experience may assist in:
determining if a customer is ready for competitive, integrated employment
evaluating if, after a change in the customer’s abilities or newly acquired vocational barriers, the customer continues to have the capacity to work in a particular field
exploring a customer’s career options
developing skills to increase a customer’s employability
giving a customer additional experience related to vocational training or a degree
Work Experience services provide an opportunity for customers to:
learn and experience work culture
identify career interests
explore potential career goals
identify on-the-job support needs
develop employability skills and good work habits
gain an understanding of employer expectations
build self-confidence
develop soft and hard skills
gain work experience and competencies in a vocation
develop an understanding of the workplace
gain the connection between working and earning