1 min. Career preparation for people with disabilities in Germany

When people think of workshops for people with disabilities, they usually have a positive image in their mind: a sheltered place where severely disabled people who cannot do regular work have meaningful employment. Over 320,000 disabled people in Germany are employed in such workshops. What many people do not know is that the employees only earn an average of around 1.35 euros per hour (Aguayo-Krauthausen, 2022). This means that despite working up to 35 hours a week, they cannot support themselves and are permanently dependent on social benefits from the state. Around 21% of those employed in workshops are people with mental disabilities who are often well educated and have already worked in the general labor market (Federal Association for Disabled People eV, 2020). This number has been growing steadily for years, although this group in particular has good chances on the general labor market with the right support (JOBinklusive, 2020). Overall, not even 1% of workshop employees are placed in the primary labor market, even though that is precisely the task of the workshops. This means that getting from a workshop to the general labor market is not easy. Against this background, the JOBInklusive project was launched, which advocates for real inclusion in the labor market and aims to enable people with disabilities to participate equally in working life.