Education between recovery and integration in the inclusive labour market poster presentation
John Bertelsen, Resource Centre for Special Needs Education, Denmark
Abstract
Functional education is an offer for people who cannot cope with an ordinary education program, people without education and people without an ordinary job. There may be several reasons for this: mental disorders or handicaps, brain damage or addiction problems. Many of these people suffer from more than one of the problems as well as from social isolation. The format of counselling and learning processes in functional education has been developed together with an two-year training program for employees in the Social organisation of Storstrøm County. The training cooperation with the clients interested in functional education. The training of counsellors and the functional education itself therefore became two integrated parts of the same project. The Resource centre for Special Needs Education was responsible for the training of counsellors, including supervision and coaching in the functional education programs. The concept of functional education covers a range of meanings. In this context it refers to an individually designs program of education with on-going evaluation. Counselling and evaluation take place in close cooperation between client and counsellor. The individual parts of the program are described in detail and a time schedule is agreed upon.
There is a possibility of self-administration by the client of the individual parts of the program. The duration of the education program may range from a few months to approximately two years depending on scope. So far, programs have been carried out in the areas of farming, market gardening, service, workmanship and various types of industrial production. The special needs related counselling is based on the internal perspective, and the development of the learning processes have inspired by situated learning, the new apprenticeship and Vygotskijs zone of proximal development. Relationally, there is an focus on the rights of the weak and on the possibilities of establishing meaningful education and important work. At the same time, the education programs contribute to personal growth and self-reflexiveness. So far, experience from the project indicates that clients experience recovery, that education has a healing effect, and that participation based on individual ability- in the labour market enhances both personal life and social integration.