Developing Entrepreneurship skills for persons with disabilities

 Disabilities vary widely in type, severity, stability, duration and time of onset. These characteristics influence individual capacities and willingness to become entrepreneurs and to sustain such a status. Self-employment is appropriate for many in this population because it can provide more flexibility than paid employment in terms of workload, work schedule and work location, which can allow for better management of disability and lifestyle. Efforts are needed to increase awareness about the desirability and feasibility of entrepreneurship by people experiencing disabilities, both among disabled and non-disabled populations. There is some evidence that targeted entrepreneurship training and start-up support programmes can be effective for disabled people, but they are expensive to deliver and the size of the target group will not always justify separate provision. There is strong potential to adapt existing training and start-up programmes to the needs of persons with disability. Business advisors should be ready to recommend self-employment as a career option to the people with disability, longer support should be available if necessary, adapted formats (such as sign language and Braille) should be used, and language should be adapted to the realities of the clients. Partnerships between business support organisations and specialist disabled support organisations can also help.

The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon, Specialised Training & Disability Resource Centre implements several programmes to develop Entrepreneurship Skills of people with disabilities. The Training Centre started a new course of study in Cookery for Entrepreneurs with disabilities in February 2020. The trainings are conducted by Ms. Mahila Wickramasekera . Women with diverse disabilities (multiple disability and learning disability) will be trained in Cookery to start up their own businesses.    

#Manique Gunaratne

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