Debate contribution: Workplace Access: Young People with a Disability
Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on .
- MLA
- Dr Caoimhe Archibald
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 1 April 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Workplace Access: Young People with a Disability
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4876876
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Department and its predecessor Departments have a long history of seeking to widen access and increase participation for disabled people across the programmes and provisions that they have funded. The supports vary, depending on the type of provision that is being accessed. In addition to the widening participation funding that higher education providers invest from fee income, there is financial assistance for students via the disabled student allowance. There is a grant of up to £25,000 per annum to assist students with the additional higher education course-related expenses that they incur as a direct result of having a disability. That can cover paying for non-medical helpers, specialised equipment and travel to and from their place of study. Each year, around 2,500 students avail themselves of that support. The Department allocates £4·5 million to further education colleges each year to assist them with supporting their students. That is put to support such as specialist technology and software and non-medical helpers such as scribes and readers. It can also fund tailored courses, with smaller, more supported classes for those who, because of a disability, cannot access mainstream provision.
We also allocated funding to the colleges for the Step Up programme, with over £4 million being allocated to the disability access route to education and employment in the past two years. Support on our training programmes such as Skills for Life and Work can include extended age eligibility and time on the programme, and additional disability support is available on that programme and on our apprenticeship programme.
255 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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