Disability:IN Launches Early Career Talent Accelerator to Provide Career Development for Professionals with Disabilities
May 02 2024 - 9:14AM
Business Wire
Innovative program customized for people with
disabilities also equips companies to retain, train and advance
disability talent
Disability:IN, the global nonprofit driving disability inclusion
in business, today introduced the Early Career Talent Accelerator—a
first-of-its-kind development program for professionals with
disabilities—and announced the initial cohort of 25
individuals.
Launching this week, the Early Career Talent Accelerator will
give participants the opportunity to develop the skills needed for
several aspects of holistic career development. With a curriculum
designed to be culturally competent, Disability:IN created the
program to be inclusive of the unique experiences of professionals
with disabilities. The program also considers participants’ career
stages and relevant needs as individual contributors or first-time
supervisors. The entire cohort self-identifies as a person with a
disability, and more than half of the cohort identifies as either a
person of color or a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“The Early Career Talent Accelerator was created in response to
interest from our partner network to address the gap in corporate
career development programs for people with disabilities,” said
Jill Houghton, president and CEO, Disability:IN. “We’re providing
training on skills that all professionals need regardless of
identity, and we’re doing it through a disability lens. We want our
participants to confidently own their story and position their
disability as a meaningful aspect of their professional
identity.”
The Early Career Talent Accelerator offers employers an
opportunity to retain and engage valued employees as well as signal
their commitment to disability inclusion. In the 2023 Disability
Equality Index, a median disability self-identification rate of
4.6% was reported from among the subset of 485 participating
companies that provided such data. Furthermore, only 5% of these
companies said they offer employee retention and advancement
programs that solely focus on employees with disabilities.
The program follows Disability:IN’s NextGen Leader Initiatives,
which provide professional mentoring and career readiness resources
for college students and recent graduates with disabilities. The
12-week Early Career Talent Accelerator combines self-paced content
with virtual instruction and will culminate with an in-person
capstone learning session and graduation at the 2024 Disability:IN
Global Conference & Expo on July 15-18 in Las Vegas.
The inaugural cohort was selected after a competitive,
nomination-based process that evaluated candidates on their career
accomplishments to date and projectable potential to benefit from
the program. Disability:IN engaged subject matter experts within
its network to create the curriculum, and each week’s session will
be led by a professional with a disability. U.S. salaried employees
of a Disability:IN corporate partner are eligible for the
program.
Sena Pottackal, an associate of client experience, DEI, and
corporate communications at Current Global, is an Early Career
Talent Accelerator participant and NextGen Leaders alum. “I’m
seeking guidance on embracing my new identity as a neurodivergent
person with a mental health disability, and I look forward to
meeting others with shared experiences and empowering each other to
grow,” Pottackal said. “Together, we can learn how to leverage the
power of our stories to champion disability inclusion in the
workplace.”
About Disability:IN
Disability:IN is a global organization driving disability
inclusion and equality in business. More than 500 corporations
partner with Disability:IN to create long-term business and social
impact through the world’s most comprehensive disability inclusion
benchmarking and reporting tool, the Disability Equality Index;
best-in-class conferences and programs; expert counsel and
engagement; and public policy leadership. To learn more about
Disability:IN’s key initiatives including Boards Are IN, Investors
are IN, and CEOs Are IN, visit www.disabilityin.org
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502803127/en/
Suzanne Robitaille Archie Group suzanne@archiegroup.com