Chapter 15: Career planning and development

15.1 Career counselling

The University should provide career counselling and guided career exploration to students with disabilities.
Incorporate a section of career counselling or position vacancy for students with disabilities into the university webpage of “career counselling”; or a tab showing the hyperlink of the accessibility service website where the career counselling information for students with disability can be obtained.
Career counsellors can invite students with disabilities to explore their perceived employability, anticipated barriers and challenges of career development, and most importantly to discover their strengths, interests, and potentials.
Organize disability-sensitive training workshops for students with disabilities, such as CV writing, negotiating accessibility arrangements in workplace.
Ensure accessibility of career counselling and relevant events organized by the university, such as on-campus recruitment fairs and job talks.
- Set up an accessibility service booth in these events.
- Ensure the accessibility of any promotional materials.
- The University may promote the use of Braille name cards.
Increase the proportion of speakers with disabilities in on-campus job talks.

Disseminate the information of and promote inclusive internship opportunities for students with disabilities.
Provide internship opportunities on campus for students with disabilities to gain more work experiences and to explore their strengths, interests, potentials and required accessibility needs in workplace.
An example is the HKU SEN Internship. It promotes campus inclusion, different departments or units offer opportunities of on-campus internships for current students with disabilities. Interns will assist on tasks including but not limited to daily administration, research, project, and materials preparation.

Collaborate with the Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department HKSAR which specializes in supporting employment of people with disabilities to establish partnership programmes for career counselling and job hunting.
Collaborate with companies directly or with relevant NGOs to provide career counselling and opportunities of internships, job shadowing, and job vacancies.

Invite alumni with disabilities to be guest speakers to share their experience of job hunting and work experience.
- During such interactive small group sharing sessions, students and fresh graduates with disabilities could discuss more questions about career planning and disabilities.
The university may invite students (both with and without disabilities) who are in placement to voluntarily respond to a brief survey on the accessibility of their own placement sites to co-create a database for future reference.
- The database will be useful to students with disabilities for job matching and timely accessibility arrangements and might also help cultivate an awareness of accessibility among the students.

Sort out any suitable internal job vacancies at the university and share the list with final-year students with disabilities and graduates with disabilities.
- Suitability here may depend on several factors such as the academic requirements, professional qualifications, accessibility needs and students’ own interests.
Provide continuous career support for graduates with disabilities.
- Active follow-up on the career development and workplace experience, if any, of graduates with disabilities within 6 months or 1 year (or even a longer period) after graduation from the university.
Establish alumni network for peer support and an information database of the career development of graduates with disabilities.
- Reference: HKUST alumni career planning, which enhances cohesion

CareER, Hong Kong Part of its services is to provide job-matching service for higher educated persons with disabilities or special educational needs.
Career Support and Development Centre, The Hong Kong Society for the Blind It provides employment counselling and pre-job training services for visually impaired Hong Kong citizens at aged 15 or above who are looking for open employment.
Employment Service Center, Hong Kong Federation of Handicapped Youth It provides various types of employment support, referrals, and training services for job seekers with disabilities and different backgrounds.
Employment & Training Centre, The Hong Kong Society for the Deaf It provides employment counselling and pre-job training services for hearing impaired Hong Kong citizens at aged 15 or above who are looking for open employment.
Supported Employment Service Centre, Hong Kong PHAB Association It provides supported employment services for disabled Hong Kong citizens at aged 15 or above who are looking for open employment.
The “Bridge” Scheme (in Chinese, 「職橋」計劃), Youth Employment Network, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups It provides supported employment services for youth with special educational needs.

Job Accommodation Network JAN, Office of Disability Employment Policy.
It provides detailed examples of employment- and workplace-related accommodations for employees of different disability.