Literature review on factors which affect the transition from school to employment of youth with disability in Australia

Literature Review

Owing to the widely observed correlation between the disability and the disadvantage, including such unemployment and low wages it is noted that the people with disabilities are also a headset of public policies. While people with the disabilities and vulnerable children are at high side of disadvantage risk. The youth face a critical stage of their life that starts on the way to undergo certain transitions from their school to their post school life and from their adolescence to the early adulthood. The youth also starts their way to the path of independence at this particular stage of life. According to a research study conducted in 2010, there are strong impacts of the disability on the transitions from school to employment of disable youth even at their critical pints of the life and then consequently these strong impacts affect the wellbeing of a person in a life long manner (Peng 2010, 265). There is much literature that provides the linkage of disadvantage with the disability and potentially with the social inclusion from higher education and employments. However, there is limited research on the factors that affect the transition of disabled youth from their school to their employment stage.

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It is found that the disability is associated with some of the other factors of disadvantage that include unemployment, low income and poor attainment of education. The disability deepens the disadvantage that is pre-existing and may also entrench it. For instance, the increasing living costs and the loss of the income from particular employment may result in more disadvantage for the family especially in economical terms. Contrarily, there are also some of the other factors that affect the transition of youth that are disabled and are also facing disadvantage. These factors include low income, unemployment and these factors are also related to the residence of a person in the disadvantages location (Peng 2010, 265). Whenever the youth with disability finishes their school. They are way less likely to take part in the employment or even in the post secondary education. Thus, they are then highly likely to get out of the labour force in this case. Another consequence of this transition is that they have to bear the low income and go through their life with disability. These consequences are obviously due to some of the concrete barriers being confronted by the disabled youth. Such factors are considered to be attitudinal, social, physical, emotional and cultural. These factors provide a reason for them that discourage and prevent their participation in the mainstream activities and thus are excluded from decision and planning regarding the transition of people with disability from school to further education and employment and other main aspects of the adult life (Shogren et al. 2015, 256-267).

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The youth with disability and also poverty have to face jeopardy in double manner. Hence, poverty and disability are associated separately with the lower employment outcomes and poorer education. Thus, one of the factors identified for this transition from school to employment is poverty that creates situation for disabled youth to not reach and avail the employment opportunities (Enayati, Hassan and Kapur 2019, 235). There is a need and approach required to tackle these poor outcomes in order to improve the transition phase from their high school to their phase of adulthood. The differences in the consequences for the youth by welfare status and disability is identified by the model of linear probability and it was found that the major factor for the transition for disabled youth is the participation in the programs of school to work agendas and consequently this the lower employment opportunities of youth with disability, lower conviction rates and the lower incomes (Enayati, Hassan and Kapur 2019, 235).

Another research identified that the major factor that has a major impact on the transition from school to employment is the involvement of family (Hirano et al. 2018, 3440). The youth having family involvement has good outcomes of in school activities and improvement in the outcomes of postschool activities such as the employment and education attendance of post secondary education. Therefore, the factor of family involvement is not much recognised in the research yet despite having major influence on this transition phase of youth with disability. There is still a difference in the students with disability as they lag behind the students without disability although being belonging to the peers of same age group regarding their employment. It is observed that the students having disability with their parents involved in their education are likely to be easily employed after their higher education phase.

This major factor of family involvement suggests that the adult providers of services and families must be engaged by encouragement from schools so that the disabled students get a chance for the achievement of their higher education and employment goals. However, (Linday et al 2015, 702) recognised that the main factors for this transition are the expectations and attitudes of the youth with disability instead of the factor of family involvement. The results of this research showed that only half of youth with a disability were working or looking for work compared to their peers. The findings show this was a result of different expectations of, and attitudes toward, youth with disabilities. For many youths with a disability, their peers, family and social networks often acted as a barrier to getting a job. Many youths also lacked independence and life skills that are needed to get a job (i.e. self-care and navigating public transportation) compared to their peers. Contrary to the expectations and attitudes of people with disability, there are also some other factors including the role of employers, job counselors, barriers at system level and lack of the funds. Job counselors focused on linking youth to employers and mediating parental concerns. Employers appeared to have weaker links to youth with disabilities. System level barriers included lack of funding and policies to enhance disability awareness among employers (Linday et al 2015, 702).

It was also found in 2015 that the barriers and factors that impact the transition from school to employment of youth with disability are of three types including socio-structural, individual and environmental factors (Wehman et al. 2015, 323). There are also micro level factors that are related with the system but they are also more linked with the larger environmental and social factors that need to be addressed first. However, still the recent research evidences depict that the young adults with disability are under high unemployment. The experiences of high school employment and expectations of parents regarding employment at post high school are also among the strong predicators affecting this transition. The other two critical aspects for the success of the process of transition including high expectations regarding the future of child from parents and work experiences or employment training in the high school level. Youth with disabilities lag behind their peers in participating in postsecondary education, which adversely affects employment options and career earnings. Yet little is known about factors affecting participation (Fleming, Allison and Fairweather 2012, 71-81).

The previous research suggests that the education at the post secondary level is indeed crucial for many youths facing disability and this is the first step that is required for their employment as majorly the youth lack their prior experience of work or job. Individuals with some postsecondary education are also more likely to be employed than are their counterparts with lower levels of educational attainment (Fleming, Allison and Fairweather 2012, 71-81). The increasingly global nature of the job market reinforces the need for higher levels of education as the value of the high school diploma has declined. Most research on employment and postsecondary participation for youth with disabilities focuses on disability related factors: “The traditional focus of special education, vocational rehabilitation, and adult community services is often driven by services that address identified deficiencies or shortcomings of youth arising from their disability conditions”. Another study in the literature found out that the disability type, gender, severity of the disability, ethnicity or race are some of the other specific factors that affect the transition from school to employment of youth with disability in Australia that have not been majorly discussed in previous literature (Wagner et al. 2014, 5-7).

The enrollment of the minority students reduction or free percentage of lunch, ratio regarding student teacher are the factors for this transition that comes broadly under the structural factors of the school. These factors consequently affect the outcomes of employment for the youth facing this transition even having disability and these factors were observed and studies by applying the analysis of hierarchical linear modeling (Dong et al. 2016, 224-234). The other post school factors for the transition outcomes in Australia that were identified include programmatic, individual and systematic factors for the youth with the disability. Moreover, there are also some individual variables that are associated with the poor outcomes regarding the post school transition. These individual factors involve race being a minority, sex being a female, facing lower status on socio economic aspect and receiving the benefits of social security (Wagner et al. 2014, 5-7).

References

Yu, Peng. “Disability and disadvantage: a study of a cohort of Australian youth.” Australian Journal of Labour Economics 13, no. 3 (2010): 265.

Enayati, Hassan, and Arun Karpur. “Impact of participation in school-to-work programs on postsecondary outcomes for youth with disabilities from low-income families.” Journal of Disability Policy Studies 29, no. 4 (2019): 235-244.

Hirano, Kara A., Dawn Rowe, Lauren Lindstrom, and Paula Chan. “Systemic barriers to family involvement in transition planning for youth with disabilities: A qualitative metasynthesis.” Journal of Child and Family Studies 27, no. 11 (2018): 3440-3456.

Lindsay, Sally, Carolyn McDougall, Dolly Menna-Dack, Robyn Sanford, and Tracey Adams. “An ecological approach to understanding barriers to employment for youth with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers: views of youth, employers, and job counselors.” Disability and rehabilitation 37, no. 8 (2015): 701-711.

Dong, Shengli, Ellen Fabian, and Richard G. Luecking. “Impacts of school structural factors and student factors on employment outcomes for youth with disabilities in transition: A secondary data analysis.” Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin 59, no. 4 (2016): 224-234.

Wehman, Paul, Adam P. Sima, Jessica Ketchum, Michael D. West, Fong Chan, and Richard Luecking. “Predictors of successful transition from school to employment for youth with disabilities.” Journal of occupational rehabilitation 25, no. 2 (2015): 323-334.

Fleming, Allison R., and James S. Fairweather. “The role of postsecondary education in the path from high school to work for youth with disabilities.” Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin 55, no. 2 (2012): 71-81.

Wagner, Mary M., Lynn A. Newman, and Harold S. Javitz. “The influence of family socioeconomic status on the post–high school outcomes of youth with disabilities.” Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals 37, no. 1 (2014): 5-17.

Shogren, Karrie A., Michael L. Wehmeyer, Susan B. Palmer, Graham G. Rifenbark, and Todd D. Little. “Relationships between self-determination and postschool outcomes for youth with disabilities.” The Journal of Special Education 48, no. 4 (2015): 256-267.