Sikora J. Theoretical and practical basis for the preparation of trainers working for supported employment

The issue of preparing work trainers to perform tasks relevant to implementing the concept of supported employment, undertaken in this work, is aimed at improving the trainers’ education system in the area of shaping the working environment for beneficiaries of supported employment. Therefore, the aim of the undertaken research was to determine, against the background of the adopted systemic decisions regarding the preparation of vocational trainers, ways to fill the program gap in the organization of the work environment for the needs of beneficiaries of supported employment with special emphasis on people with intellectual disabilities. The conducted research, due to the location of the research subject in the sphere of important decisions created in the processes of organization of the society, required extensive theoretical reflection on the manner of functioning of various social entities associated in a diverse and special way with education. This meant the need to explore different areas of social reality, including the research methods characteristic of them. The content of education regarding the ways of adapting the work environment to the needs of beneficiaries of supported employment were determined in the functional analysis mode in accordance with the key objective formulated and assigned to specific key functions. Effective implementation of the postulates defined in this way requires equipping work trainers with appropriate instruments in the form of guidelines for work trainers and checklists enabling solving problems arising in the practical activity of trainers. The guidelines and checklists developed as a result of the research are useful tools for targeting and verification of activities undertaken to adapt the work environment to the needs of beneficiaries of supported employment. The advantage of this type of instruments is flexibility and openness to their continuous improvement, corresponding to the acquired experience in this area and the possibility of implementing scientific achievements to improve them.