Almost two million people of working age have some type of disability, which represents 6.3% of the active population, however only 9% of them were working in 2021 when the report ‘Employment of people with disabilities’ was published. disability’, prepared by the SEPE Occupations Observatory. More than half do so in the private sector (51%) in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers.
The company had detected that almost seven out of ten professionals in the IT and new technologies sector had completed intensive training or ‘bootcamps’ before taking their first job in the area, after carrying out a study of the employability of the sector. . This information led the foundation to promote one of these courses aimed specifically at people with disabilities and also provide them with the opportunity to acquire this new knowledge for free.
Eurofirms celebrates that to date 55 workers have been able to acquire these new skills and 70% have found employment in a technology company after completing the course. “In the long journey towards equal opportunities, the technology sector is paving the way for people with disabilities to have the same opportunities as the rest of the citizenry,” the general director of the Eurofirms Foundation, Mar, tells La Información. Jordà went.
Furthermore, the person in charge values that technology “plays a fundamental role in eliminating the barriers of disability, providing a crucial means of labor inclusion.” The coronavirus has marked a before and after in employment patterns in which teleworking has increased exponentially, especially in this sector, which provides new opportunities for people with disabilities, however, it also presents risks such as social isolation, as the president of the Federation of Associations of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities of the Community of Madrid (FAMMA), Javier Font, warned a few months ago.
The outbreak of the coronavirus interrupted six years of uninterrupted growth in the number of contracts signed by people with disabilities and reversed the trend to reduce hiring by 30% in 2020. In subsequent years progress has continued, although at the end of 2022 2 pre-pandemic levels had not been recovered. Furthermore, there are strong differences based on age, something that is accentuated after the age of 45, according to statistics and is partly explained by the difficulties that these generations faced in accessing training, for example, due to barriers. architectural or social.
In parallel, the Spanish labor market is resisting the challenges of the economy – even though it is beginning to show signs of slowing down – and it is precisely the STEM careers sector that has been creating one in every four jobs since the beginning of the year. . , as the Secretary of State for Social Security, Borja Suárez, usually emphasizes. From this department and from the Ministry of Labor they celebrate this result not only because of the increase in the number of members or the reduction in unemployment, but because it often offers high salaries, which translates into an increase in revenue thanks to the creation of quality employment.
