Inclusive employment of people with an intellectual disability at a social enterprise

Samenvatting

Masterthesis from Adeline Lefebvre for the master's programme Clinical Orthopedagogics and Disability Studies at Ghent University, Belgium.

The research question concerns the inclusiveness at a social enterprise. The qualitative research for this internship report was conducted at the green apprenticeship company, Campus Woudhuis.

Doelstelling

People with an occupational disability have a low employment rate in the Netherlands and internationally. Their low employment rate is set within a context of limited job choices. However, these limited employment choices are expanded by social entrepreneurs, encouraged by the government. The government endorses that social enterprises can contribute to social and societal issues, such as employment for people with a disability. This paper aims to contribute to visualise the various challenges social enterprises come across and how inclusion finds place in this, based on the experiences of all stakeholders related to the social enterprise.

Methode

The paper uses a case study of a social enterprise with 23 stakeholders, 16 of whom were interviewed to map out the experiences of the inclusiveness of a social enterprise.

Resultaten

The report finds that there are contributing as well as challenging aspects of inclusion, based on the experiences of all interviewed participants. Further, the social enterprise faces various dilemmas, regarding transition-to-work programme, paid work, ableism and care or work culture.

With a focus on the sense of belonging, the social enterprise is very inclusive, as employees feel good and it has become a safe environment for them. However, if we look at the place that the social enterprise occupies in society from a social perspective, we notice that a parallel labour market is being created.