Graduates with disability and competitive employment: a preliminary study

Introduction: The reinstatement of people with disability is still a challenge for Italy nowadays. Specific laws has been approved to support and facilitate the learning process and employment of people with disability. The Sapienza University of Rome has developed specific services to grant disabled students equal opportunities of study, helping the learning of useful skills to enhance employment, offering an option to the mandatory placement set by Italian laws. Nevertheless agencies working for newly graduated with disability selection and placemen, highlights their difficulty in recruiting them. Aim: To understand this phenomenon this research aims to explore motivations and professional goals of people with disability attending University. Methodology: Five students with disability underwent an in-depth face-to-face interview which were audio recorded and integrally transcribed. Transcripts underwent a text analysis to detect relevant thematic dimensions emerging from subjects’ narrations. Results: Preliminary results show that the University is represented as: a place where to develop one-self passions not to remain inactive, a place where to develop useful professional skills, a work waiting room. Conclusion: Participants who represent the University as a place where to develop their passion are not interested in getting into the working market because it would imply the loss of the economical income. Those who intend to acquire professional skills seem to have their own projects and they do not necessarily need a support to be recruited. Only those who represent the University as a “work waiting room” could be interested in agencies support to be recruited by enterprises.