ExploreVR offers vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies easy and convenient access to a range of VR research, related data, and tools for planning, evaluation, and decision-making.
VR Spotlight
Progressive Employment, or PE, is an employment service delivery model used by vocational rehabilitation agencies and community rehabilitation providers. PE provides an integrated approach to addressing the needs of the “dual customer”: job seekers with disabilities and businesses.
Implementing the PE model can help your agency to:
Use work-based learning strategies to match businesses and jobseekers in a low-risk/no-risk setting
Rapidly engage jobseekers in the VR process
Strengthen business relations
Improve team communication processes
Comply with federal laws such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
Track and use data to improve your results
The ICI’s experts can help you determine if PE model is a good fit for your agency and how best to apply it. We offer training and consultation from launching your PE initiative to tracking its outcomes and sharing your results.
Listen as Hugh Bradshaw tells the story about how the PE model helped engage businesses while allowing customers the opportunity to explore different industries and career options in Vermont.
Hugh Bradshaw: Progressive employment in VT
Hugh Bradshaw is the former Employment Services Manager at VocRehab Vermont and now a content expert at ICI. He played a key role in developing and implementing the Progressive Employment (PE) model that helps engage businesses while allowing customers the opportunity to explore different industries and career options.This model addresses fears on the part of the employer and on the part of the individual candidate by allowing people to get a sense of if the work environment is a good match, and by helping to reduce the resistance and fears of businesses about hiring people with disabilities – even more effectively than disability awareness workshops or trainings. PE also introduces people to businesses and allows businesses to get to know people with disabilities as individuals beyond their disability labels.
Explore courses and trainings offered by the Program on Innovative Rehabilitation Training on Employer Engagement.
VR Toolkits
The Toolkits provide resources on promising and emerging VR strategies from the field. Explore tools and resources that can help lead to improved employment outcomes for people with disabilities.
Career Pathways programs integrate educational instruction, workforce development, and vocational supports that align with labor market trends and business needs.
