Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities Operating Manual
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Section 179 - Services and Supports - School to Work Transition
Purpose
School to Work Transition is intended to provide non-profit agencies or in certain situations, private contractors, with funding supports to assist participants leaving the secondary school system in obtaining and maintaining competitive employment.
This service is available throughout Manitoba to support eligible participants whose intellectual level of functioning is just above the eligibility requirement for Community Living disABILITY Services and for whom an assessment or other training is not needed or desired by the participant.
Process
School to Work Transition services are generally purchased from agencies providing employment services for persons with developmental disabilities. However, when there is no suitable employment agency available other alternatives can be considered with the exception of other Provincial or Federal Government Departments.
The following criteria will help determine whether the vocational training plan should access funding through the School to Work initiative:
- In situations where the participant requires a formalized or structured assessment or unpaid work experiences prior to seeking employment, the participant should be referred to an Employment and Training Centre, and not for School to Work Transitional funding. If an Employment and Training Centre is not located in the geographic area the use of Alternative Services as described in Section 133.6 may be considered to address the need.
- If an agency is already receiving funding for employment related services from the provincial government, School to Work Transition Services should not be used to provide duplicate services. In arranging for these services from agencies already funded by government, the Vocational Counsellor must be satisfied that the costs incurred in providing the service are required to augment the services for which other government funding is being provided to the agency.
- Non-profit agencies may receive the first phase of School to Work Transition funding once a vocational plan has been developed in cooperation with the individual and their Vocational Counsellor.
School to Work Transition services are generally provided once a written vocational plan has been developed outlining the services to be provided to a participant from an agency and funding approval has been obtained. Once an individual participant has secured employment, the agency must notify the Vocational Counsellor to activate the second phase of funding for Employment Supports.
Funding for Employment Services and Employment Supports for purposes of job placement and follow-up support activities may be negotiated as follows:
- Employment Services – can be negotiated in two ways:
- Fee for Service up to a maximum of $17.40 per hour, up to 100 hours, or up to $1,740.00 worth of service; or
- As a $1,740.00 fee for service; which may be further divided into $500.00 for enrolment and vocational planning and if the participant and agency wants to continue working together for job search and job placement then the remaining $1,240.00 may be invoiced.
- Employment Supports – up to a maximum of $17.40 per hour, up to a total of 80 hours or $1,395.00 worth of service.
Transportation costs for School to Work participants shall be provided for up to three months as the expectation is the individual will become employed within a short period of time.
The first phase, the Employment Services phase, of School to Work Transition services may start anytime from three months before school leaving until 13 months after school leaving. (For example, a participant leaving school in June of one year remains eligible to receive the first phase of School to Work Transition Funding support for 12 months starting anytime up to the end of July of the following year.) The Employment Services phase is generally expected to be completed within a six month period from enrolment in School to Work Transition Funding.
Funding for the second phase, the Employment Supports phase, covers a period of up to 12 months after employment of at least 15 hours per week is obtained. The maximum duration that School to Work Transition funding is expected to cover is 18 months. Should Employment Supports be required beyond 18 months, then the Employment Supports described in Section 133.5 should be applied.
Each request for School to Work Transition Funding must be clearly described in the Vocational Counsellor comments section of the relevant Funding Request form and sent to:
Employment Assistance for People with Disabilities
350-800 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg MB R3G 0N4
A Funding Request Form must be received by EAPD for funding to be committed.
Standards
The following standards apply for School to Work Services:
- Individualized Training Funding for School to Work Services is available only to eligible participants through involvement with Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities.
- The agency/independent contractor should only accept those individuals for whom they feel they can accomplish the employment objective within the timeframes and costs described in this Section.
- Individualized Training Funding for School to Work Services is available to eligible participants for up to up to 13 months after leaving school for the first phase (Employment Services) of School to Work Transition Funding. The second phase (Employment Supports) may cover a period of 12 months after employment has been obtained. However the combined total that is considered for School to Work Transition funding is 18 months from date of enrolment or approval of funding.
- All funding requests for School to Work Transition must be sufficiently detailed to determine eligibility and sent to EAPD 350-800 Portage Avenue Winnipeg MB R3G 0N4 for processing.