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Through interviews with seven young people from Victoria, this study identifies and evaluates the pathways available from vocational education and training (VET) to work for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Deaf people are able to access a variety of careers. Nevertheless, the ‘dots’, represented by secondary school deaf facilities, deaf schools, mainstream students and other support services available to deaf people, such as specialist employment agencies and disability liaison officers at technical and further education (TAFE) institutes, need to be better ‘connected’ to ensure a smoother transition from school, to further education and to employment. This will enable students to achieve more satisfying jobs commensurate with their skills and training.
- Those interviewed indicated that their career options were limited by the perceptions, both their own and others, of what they were able to do.
- The largest barrier faced by deaf and hard of hearing students in a learning environment is the availability and provision of communication support (such as Auslan—Australian Sign Language—interpreters, notetakers, real-time captioning and voice recognition software).
- Deaf students require more specialised assistance, such as access to life coaching and specialist deaf career advisors to assist in determining appropriate career paths. The deaf people interviewed also felt they would like access to deaf role models and information in a more accessible format to help them to make more informed decisions about their career.
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