Barriers to Opportunities: Building an Inclusive Labour Market for Young People with Disabilities – workshop’s coverage
September 29 2026
Representatives of public employment services, civil society organisations, NGOs, academics, practitioners and other stakeholders working in the fields of youth, employment and disability were among the audience at an international workshop on 25 September 2026 dedicated to creating opportunities for people with disabilities.
The workshop, entitled ‘Barriers to Opportunities: Building an Inclusive Labour Market for Young People with Disabilities’, focused on analysing how an innovative approach to supporting employment can help improve the integration of young people with disabilities into the labour market, particularly those in the NEET group.
The main focus of the event was the ‘Job Crafting’ tool developed as part of the NEVI-EVY project. Participants were introduced to the ‘Job Crafting’ toolkit and methodology, including the role of the ‘Job Crafting’ facilitator, the various stages of support, strategies for reaching target audiences, and practical approaches to help young people with disabilities identify and develop employment opportunities tailored to their skills, needs and aspirations.
The workshops combined research findings, practical tools and implementation experiences. We created a space for discussion on the main barriers faced by young people with disabilities when entering the labour market, and for identifying opportunities to transfer and replicate the NEVI-EVY approach in various European contexts.
The topics covered during the workshops included: experimental evidence on barriers to employment, experiences from the pilot implementation, the role of public employment services, and the opportunities and challenges associated with the wider dissemination of the concept of ‘job crafting’.
The final part of the workshop was devoted to an interactive discussion with participants, which enabled organisations and specialists from various countries to exchange views, identify challenges relating to implementation, and explore how this methodology could be adapted to their own institutional and national contexts.
The European Union, Social Innovation + Initiative co-finance the project.
Project no.: ESF-SI-2023-SKILLS-01-0075 -NEVI-EVY
and
The National Freedom Institute – Centre for Civil Society Development co-finance the project. Agreement no.: 14/PROO/1b/2026
Mateusz Smoter, a representative of the sister project “Equality in Access to Employment: A Mail Survey on Discrimination Against People with Disabilities,” funded by the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities, will participate as a guest speaker at the meeting
