While the job fair for People with disabilities (PwD) held in September 2010 provided employment to about 100 people, EKansh Trust, which serves the PwD, is working towards having more trained and ready candidates for its next job fair in 2012.
EKansh had organised a job fair for the PwD in September last year, the first of its kind in the city. During the two-day fair held on September 25 and 26 at the Indian Institute of Education, Kothrud, people with both minor and major disabilities with good qualifications took part.
After the analysis of the results of the earlier job fair, the organisation realised that lack of basic communication skills is one of the major limitations for people with disabilities. EKansh, therefore, started training programmes for PwD while they are helping companies to prepare to accommodate such people.
Founder of EKansh, Anita Iyer said, “We have conducted a soft skills training programme at the Pune University for the visually impaired group of students. Also, companies like Bajaj Allianz are looking at employing the visually impaired candidates and we have conducted an access audit for them to ensure that work spaces are accessible. Modifications are underway.”
EKansh conducted workshop for teachers and trainers of PwD to communicate to them what is expected by corporates from candidates.
“We would like to set up a training centre where volunteers from corporate houses and other organisations help train PwD in tandem with their expectations. We are looking at raising funds for the same,” Iyer said.
