How can mentorship and networking opportunities contribute to the career advancement of individuals with disabilities?
How do you envision such a mentorship to be? Would it be connected to school or an extracurricular activity? I like the idea but would love to hear more about what you mean.
Microsoft has the Autism Hiring Program which is an adapted program to have persons with autism in the workforce. Once they are hired they are paired up with other colleagues who may act as guides and mentors to each other. The Autistic person will guide the other person on matters autism and the other person will guide the autistic person in matters career and profession. I think that's a good approach so that people understand disability from a personal perspective and not from other sources that are not persons with disabilities themselves.
In a school/institution setting I think it would work, by allocating mentors to students, who then monitor their performance vis-a-vis their chosen career path. It would be a great way for students to open up, re-strategize and be motivated to achieve their goals. Once the performance is good, the mentors can then link these students to opportunities, by virtue of their networks.
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https://community.enableme.org/en/discussion/comment/282788#Comment_282788
Extracurricular activities outside school. For example symposiums and workshops