As an employment specialist, you have a responsibility to help job seekers acquire the requisite skills to perform on the job and gradually eliminate the need for your presence on the job site. The training techniques to meet this challenge are broader than we can adequately address here, so we encourage you to enhance your professional development via the links below and explore the information they contain.
Core Training Strategies
Gibson et al. (2017) identifies many effective techniques for helping the employment specialist to focus upon job seeker skill instruction, such as:
- Performance feedback
- Device assisted instruction — Including a computer, other technological device (e.g., tablet, iPhone, digital watch), or a form of AAC such as a communication board or a picture book
- Response prompting
- Task chaining
- Self-management strategies — Strategies to manage and direct one’s own behavior in settings where other controls are not present or feasible
- Physical guidance — A form of response prompting in which the instructor provides handover-hand or gestural assistance
- Least-to-most prompting; Least-to-Most Prompting Comparison
- Simulation — Using materials and situations in the teaching environment that approximate the natural stimulus conditions and response topographies of functional skills in community settings (e.g., role playing)
- Video-modeling; Video Modeling Video Example
- Simultaneous prompting
- Mnemonics; Mnemonics (Psych Central)
- Backward chaining
- Progressive time delay
- Reinforcement contingency
Teaching the Intangibles
Teaching someone the skills necessary to complete tasks to employer specifications is only one part of the equation. You must concurrently provide the job seeker the so-called “soft skills” integral to long-term career success. The role of an employment specialist or job coach is to provide the supports necessary so the job seeker can demonstrate worksite social skills, problem solving skills, the ability to cope with emergent change, transportation management, to name but a few of the intangibles necessary for career success.
The importance of these skills highlights the necessary task of Discovery prior to employment negotiations. It is imperative an employment specialist arrive at a thorough understanding of the job seeker, including the identification of their support needs and their involvement in social networks.
Securing and acting upon this information prior to the start of work, along with teaching methods of self-study, will help the job seeker successfully navigate competitive, integrated employment.
If you are a new employment specialist, ask your supervisor to assist in identifying necessary training curricula. The Center on Community Living and Careers offers two courses that can help you impart these intangible skills to your job seekers:
- Employment Consultant Training with an Emphasis on Customized Employment
- Discovery for Employment Services
Planning for Success and Obstacles
Even with a successful Discovery phase and familiarity with skill training techniques, keep Murphy’s Law in mind. A truism in supported employment is that inevitably, something will “go wrong.” You do, however, have the power to mitigate impacts of unexpected challenges by preparing yourself as much as possible with pre-planning!
Planning for success means developing effective teaching based upon the support and learning needs of the job seeker. It also entails involving the job seeker’s personal support networks as much as possible. Planning for obstacles means developing back-up or alternative strategies before a pivotal event occurs. Just as you would have a back-up plan for a monthly budget deficit, you should establish workplace related back-up plans.
Think about, for example, the use of natural supports: Effective Job Coaching Supports: Using Both Natural Supports and Systematic Instruction.
Whatever supports you are providing to your job seeker, from the core job skills to the essential soft skills, we wish you great success in your training techniques learning journey!