Identifying the knowledge, skills, and barriers for self-employment

Abstract

BACKGROUND: While self-employment is a viable and beneficial employment strategy for people with disabilities, there seems to be considerable variation in how state rehabilitation agencies support self-employment. Because of this variation, research is needed to identify the critical elements for facilitating self-employment. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to gather information from vocational rehabilitation counselors about what they believe are the knowledge and skills essential to facilitating self-employment and the barriers to business ownership throughout key phases of the vocational rehabilitation process, including (a) application and intake, (b) plan development and service delivery, and (c) employment and closure. METHODS: A Delphi method with three iterations was used to identify information from VRCs and managers about what they believe are the knowledge, skills, and barriers when facilitating self-employment and business ownership during the vocational rehabilitation process. RESULTS: Respondents rated 15 knowledge and skill items for the application and intake domain, 19 knowledge and skill items in the plan development and service delivery domain, and 12 knowledge and skill items in the employment and closure domain. Respondents also rated three barriers for application and intake, six plan development and service delivery barriers, and three barriers were rated in employment and closure. CONCLUSION: The VRCs identified a wide range of knowledge and skills and barriers across each area of the rehabilitation process. More research should be conducted to further operationalize the skills and proficiencies for self-employment.