Engaging individuals with learning difficulties and disabilities in workplace learning

This guide has been produced by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) on behalf of the Skills Funding Agency.

The aim of this guide is to highlight where and how providers can work to make their offer of workplace learning more inclusive for disabled employees.

It is based on the good practice, insights and experiences of a number of providers from across England which are working hard to deliver learning provision in an accessible and inclusive way, both inside the workplace and outside of it. This guide aims to share these insights more widely in order to add value to the existing good practice that many providers already have underway around the Equality Duty and their own equality and diversity commitments.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for all providers who are interested in making their offer of workplace learning more inclusive for disabled employees. This includes providers such as further education colleges, private training providers, and providers in the voluntary sector. Most of the good practice examples that we uncovered and have cited in this guide have been drawn from provision aimed at employees with low skills levels (qualifications below Level 2) that has been funded under European Social Fund (ESF) Priority 2 and Priority 5. However, much of this practice cuts across levels of learning and is relevant to other levels of learning and types of provision.