WEP Placement Matching: Assessment & Choices
This section includes:
- A discussion of some of the challenges in transition to post-secondary education
- Issues related to work experience selection. How are WEP’s selected?
- An overview of vocational assessments. What are some of the most common assessments being used with this student group?
- Considerations for setup, monitoring and evaluation
- An overview of the current recommended practices in the field and how can we apply these in BC ASE ER programs.
When considering internships for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there are two important principles to enact. The first principle is that an intern should never complete tasks in an internship that are not tasks that would be part of a paid position. … Internships should be training interns to do jobs that they can one day be paid to complete. The goal is to train a person in work tasks that can be transferred to paid employment … (p. 458) the second principle is focusing on the strengths and abilities of the potential intern. …Getting to know the potential intern with intellectual and developmental disabilities is imperative prior to selecting an internship site. The employment specialist must understand the intern’s likes, dislikes, interests, motivations, career aspirations, learning style, and abilities (both mental and physical) in order to match the individual to the best internship experience. [1]
- Wehman, P., Avelline, L., Brooke, V., Hinterlong, P., Inge, K., Lau, S., & McDonough, J. R. (2017). Transition to Employment. In M. Wehmeyer, & K. Shogren (Eds.), Handbook of research-based practices for educating students with intellectual disability (pp. 450-470). New York, New York, United States of America: Routledge. ↵
