The European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA), is pleased to invite you to the 12th Live Discussion on ''Accessible digital learning for persons with disabilities – Experience and good practices from regions'' taking place on April 7 2022, from 14:00 to 15:30 CEST. 

Quality apprenticeships hold great potential to benefit individuals with disabilities, due to their practical approach and effective learning transfer. Apprenticeships can offer a bridge to productive employment for persons with disabilities, as they are given a chance to prove their abilities in education and workplace settings. Employers can use apprenticeships to gauge their potential so that they can be recruited and become integrated into enterprises and the labour market.

Evidence suggests that persons with disabilities entering the labour market are facing barriers – including prejudice, lack of work experience, low schooling levels, and mismatched skills. In the EU, only 51 % of persons with disabilities are in employment (compared to 75 % without disabilities) and more than half report that they feel personally discriminated against. Quality apprenticeship can further play an important role to address these issues, especially when accompanied by assistive technologies.

Assistive technologies (ATs) can help normalise the life of a disabled individual by supporting functioning and independence, leading to enhanced well-being and participation in society. Some of the most widespread ATs in education are used to support learners with visual or hearing impairments, or autism spectrum disorders. Examples of such ATs can be braille systems, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and software teaching how to read facial expressions, recognise faces, identify emotions, and so on.

However, while these technologies are promising, implementation of ATs can be challenging and must ensure safe, ethical and affordable usage, whilst ensuring that human care will remain irreplaceable. The EU and its Member States have signed the UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities, underlining that assistive technology has the potential to allow persons with disabilities to live independently and to participate fully in all aspects of life. The recently published Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030 further calls upon Member States to adopt targeted measures and flexible training formats to ensure inclusive and accessible VET programmes, including for persons with disabilities. Contributing to this objective, the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) stands committed to share knowledge on how apprenticeships can be used as a tool for social inclusion, and will encourage pledges on quality apprenticeships providing support for learners with disabilities.

This live discussion will examine how apprenticeships can become more accessible to persons with disabilities and explore how assistive technologies (ATs) are implemented across Europe and its regions.

 Key-questions that will be addressed include:

• What makes apprenticeships a suitable tool for integrating individuals with disabilities on the labour market?
• How can the image of apprenticeships be enhanced to widen participation of disabilities in apprenticeships?
• What barriers do persons with disabilities face throughout the apprenticeship process? Can assistive technologies solutions be a way to overcome these barriers?
• In what ways can assistive technologies contribute to empower persons with disabilities in apprenticeships and beyond?
• How can the challenges to implementing AT be tackled – including making the technology safe, ethical and affordable, as well as ensuring that human care will remain irreplaceable?

The live discussion will be moderated by Ms Ann Vanden Bulcke, Policy Assistant, DG EMPL and will welcome the following speakers : 

• Emma Theiland Nilsson, education project manager for the project Samsär, Göteborg region associated with Västra Götaland region, Sweden,
• Fabrice Goffin, CEO of Zorabots – a robotics company in Belgium
• Sophia Karagouni, Project Manager, EEA MARGARITA, Greece
  
• Andrea Bernert-Buerkle, Baden Württemberg, Germany

The chair of the session will be Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Senior Expert, Disability and Inclusion Unit, DG EMPL.