Ten unemployed persons with disability are employed within the framework of the project ‘Developing skills for better employability of persons with disabilities’ implemented by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) in cooperation with the company New Page LLC, and with the support of the Employment Agency of Montenegro.
Through this project that aims to improvement of the employability of persons with disability through informal training directed at the developing key competences, working practices and promoting benefits and good practices of employment of these persons within the group itself, but also towards potential employers and general public, ten persons with disabilities have passed two-month training in development of IT skills, entrepreneurship, development of business plan and start-up, as well as project proposal writing and management of projects funded by the EU. After that they have started working engagement.
Through intensive communication with potential employers and signing of cooperation contract with interested parties, the CCE provided employment for persons with disabilities in civil society organizations, private companies and institutions. Thus, Andrea Pavicevic, project participant, is employed in doo Arhimed, Ranko Vojvodic at the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN CG), Tamara Radenovic in the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information, Ivana RaduloviC in NGO CAZAS, Sladjana Stijepovic in NGO Green Home, Dragica Vujovic in Paraplegic Association, Niksic, Dragan Pejovic in ‘Moja knjiga’ LCC , Jupo Babaic in New Page LCC, Andrea Rogosic in NGO CCE and Marko Otasevic at the Institution of Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro.
The capacities of persons with disabilities must prevail over barriers posed by different types of disabilities. Therefore, social and institutional efforts must be made to enable them to contribute to social and economic development. Unfortunately, not a small number of employers in Montenegro do not understand the potential of persons with disabilities. Hence, it is obvious that it is necessary to strengthen the awareness of business sector to provide opportunity for people with disability to show and prove themselves. This includes activities that encourage all institutions, especially those where human rights issues are not in the focus of work, and therefore these do not attach necessary importance to the right to employment of vulnerable groups of Montenegrin society.
The CCE expresses its satisfaction with the fact that it established and continues cooperation with ten participants of this programme – persons with disability who recognize the importance of working experience and try to improve their competitiveness on labour market. We hope that the example of employers participating in the project ‘Developing skills for better employability of persons with disabilities’ will be recognized and followed by other employers in order to create an inclusive climate in Montenegro for improvement of the employability of people with disabilities, and thus to contribute to greater improvement of social and economic inclusion of persons with disability within society.
Zeljka Cetkovic, Programme Associate