Supported Apprenticeship Scheme

Supported Apprenticeship Scheme

The Supported Apprenticeship Scheme, initiated by LADAPT, aims to develop access to training for people with disabilities and to secure their pathway to sustainable employment. The project partners comprise of 7 partners in 6 European countries (Norway, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria). This learning support framework entitled the ‘Referential’, includes the provision of learning support on a holistic basis involving a whole chain of actors around the person with disabilities and their relatives.

The project delivery started at the beginning of 2022. The partners visited LADAPT’s headquarters for a 2-day training on the scheme and a first transnational partners meeting was held in Varna, Bulgaria. At the transnational meeting in Varna the partners had the opportunity to review the training undertaken in Paris, to familiarize themselves with the methodology and tools and to prepare for the practical implementation of supported apprenticeships in their respective countries.

In the meantime, 14 European Vocational Integration Counsellors and trainers continue to support potential apprentices  with disabilities to access apprenticeships in Bulgaria, France, Norway, Spain and Greece.

The SAS Project is of interest for EPR and its members for four main reasons:

1. It covers the professional, educational, and personal spheres of young persons with disabilities doing an apprenticeship;
2. Content-wise it focuses on the related support services initiated and facilitated by specially trained job coaches, Vocational Integration Counsellors (VICs) and aims at elaborating a methodology to implement the supported apprenticeship scheme successfully established in France for five other countries (Bulgaria; Greece; Italy; Norway; Spain).
3. The co-design/co-construction of services is reflected in the methodology used;
4. EPR will coordinate the elaboration of the policy recommendations as of year 2 of the project and will then feed them into relevant EU-level policy discussions and processes.