ILO project boosts and advocates for inclusive employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Türkiye
Following a worksop on the issue in March, the ILO Office for Türkiye organized the first of a three-city series of trainings and career days for job seekers with disabilities and employers seeking to employ people with disabilities in Ankara.
22 May 2024
ILO News (Ankara)- ILO Office for Türkiye continues to work for inclusive employment for persons with disabilities. In order to contribute to the equal, fair and inclusive attitude towards persons with disabilities in the world of work and to ensure that they are not only considered solely based on their disabilities but with their skills and competencies, the ILO Office for Türkiye organized “Training for Personal Competency Development for Persons with Disabilities”, “Training for Companies for Inclusive Communication and Selecting Successful People with Disabilities” on 14, 16 and a Barrier-Free Career Meeting on 21 May in Ankara. The events, organized within the scope of the Project on Promoting Decent Work for Syrians under Temporary Protection and Turkish Citizens and in cooperation with Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR) Private Employment Agency Engelsizkariyer.com, will continue in Adana in June and Gaziantep in July.
Çiğdem Altunok, ILO Office for Türkiye Technical Officer for Refugees, shared ILO's approach to disability and inclusion. Altunok said: “People with disabilities face many obstacles in the world of work as in many other areas, especially in terms of fair attitude, accessibility and lack of information. As a result of many problems they encounter, such as unemployment and economic inactivity at a much higher rate than people without disabilities, people with disabilities remain significantly far from also social security”.
Mehmet Kızıltaş, founder of Engelsizkariyer.com, said: “It is necessary to assess the employment of people with disabilities in all its psychological, biological, social and economic dimensions. The whole point is to focus on talent, and on being human, not on disability. We will continue to increase our cooperation in order to raise awareness among prospective employees with disabilities and employers and to spread the understanding of inclusive employment”.
A total of 72 people, nearly 60 of whom were people with disabilities, attended the first training day in Ankara organized for prospective employees with disabilities. The topics of the first day were feeling belonging, self-confidence and courage in business life, effective CV preparation and successful interview techniques.
Human resources expert Özkan Başak gave a presentation about feeling belonging in business life, self recognition and job-skills matching. He also shared information on successful interview techniques and conducted an interview simulation with some participants. Başak said, “Employees with disabilities should trust and know themselves. Employers should discover employees with their abilities, not their disabilities, not to only fill obligatory quotas. For all these, education should be provided from a very early age in the education system.” In Türkiye, private sector workplaces employing 50 or more workers must employ 3% people with disabilities.
Another participant, Esra Ersoy, Children with Cerebral Palsy Association founder and radio program producer on people with disabilities said, "We should not be afraid of our own voice. It is very important to defend our rights. The public, civil society and all segments of society should cooperate in this regard. We should not give up, we should start the change we want to see in the world from ourselves".
On May 16, 50 company representatives from different sectors participated in the training program for companies, which included presentations and discussions on inclusive communication with people with disabilities, successful selection of employees with disabilities, reasonable accommodation in the workplace, people with disabilities’ CVs reading techniques, the importance of diversity and inclusion and inclusive recruitment, besides simulated interviews.
Aynur Güney, Human Resources specialist at MAN, one of the companies in Ankara with the highest number of employees with disabilities, said: “We think that employees with disabilities and companies should be given an opportunity to mutually benefit. Not only to fulfill obligations, not only to fill quotas, but to assess employees with disabilities with their differences will not only benefit companies, but will bring positive results for the whole society”.
Over 400 job-seekers with disabilities showed great interest in the Barrier-Free Career Meeting held on May 21, who came to interview with company representatives. At the same time, job seekers with disabilities were supported to prepare their resumes during the event. Several employers also stated to the ILO that they had chance to find employees with disabilities they were looking to employ.
The Project on “Promoting Decent Work for Syrians under Temporary Protection and Turkish Citizens” implemented by the ILO Office for Türkiye carries out activities to ensure that people with disabilities, like many other vulnerable groups, are assessed in the labor market based on their skills and abilities and to develop new skills. The Work-Based Learning Programme (locally known as ISMEP) implemented in this context, has so far facilitated the employment of over 200 people with disabilities through its five implementation partners in Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Gaziantep and Istanbul. It was also organized a “Strengthening Employment for People with Disabilities: Collaborative Solutions Workshop"” in March with the participation of representatives from public institutions, civil society, other United Nations agencies, NGOs, universities and trade unions.
