To support young adults with both physical and mental difficulties in Ireland seeking employment, Variety – the Children’s Charity of Ireland recently held a very special seminar titled ‘Creating an environment of inclusion for young people entering the workplace’. With the kind support of Leargas and RCSI, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, the seminar was held at the prestigious RCSI building in Dublin, last May 3rd 2023.
This special seminar discussed important areas such as wellbeing, inclusion and diversity and looked at what we can do to better assist both employers and young adults with disabilities, as they prepare to enter the workplace.
Talks were given from some of the Ireland’s best-known leaders in the field of wellbeing, inclusion, diversity and the corporate sector which included including Rachelle Gaskell who is a Director at Citi Bank and Board Director at Variety Ireland.
Ms Gaskell opened the seminar with a talk about Variety Ireland’s role in helping children and young adults overcome adversity in Ireland today.
Following Rachelle was Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, RCSI University & Health Sciences Dr Jolanta Burke. Jolanta discussed the importance of how well-being and the benefits it we can all achieve by looking after our own mental health.
Senior Executive Development Specialist & Chartered Psychologist, RCSI University & Health Sciences Dr Mary Collins followed Dr Jolanta, who spoke about bias and the importance of diversity in the workplace.
Minister at The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Anne Rabbitte held a gave a passionate talk about what her own department is doing in addressing the needs of young adults with disabilities as they prepare themselves for employment.
Jennifer Ward, Associate Director with Sigmar Recruitment, spoke to the audience and talked about how her company is helping to address the needs of people from different backgrounds finding meaningful employment.
Sean Hanna from who is Programme Manager at NOW Group explained in his talk how his organisation is supporting people with learning difficulties and autism in the workplace.
Finally, Kristen Foran who is The National Sales Director, Zurich Life discussed diversity and how we can better harness the leaders of the future.
This we hope will allow both young adults with disabilities seeking employment and their carers to access talks by our mentors which will prepare them for taking positive steps to accessing employment in the workplace.
Thanks to the support of Leargas, Variety – the Children’s Charity of Ireland were able to record the morning’s proceeding.
Variety – the Children’s Charity of Ireland would sincerely like to thank caters Compass Ireland who supplied all refreshments free of charge along with our mentors and their organisations for helping put this informative event together which we hope will provide hope and encouragement for young adults looking to enter the workspace.
