The meeting participants discussed the progress of programmes to support young people with disabilities as they receive professional training and to assist them in subsequent employment.
Minister of Labour and Social Protection Maxim Topilin, Minister of Education and Science Olga Vasilyeva, Head of the Federal Service for Labour and Employment Vsevolod Vukolov, Chairman of the Pension Fund Board Anton Drozdov, and Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science Natalia Naumova delivered reports.
The Law On Employment in the Russian Federation was amended to provide for individual assistance to unemployed persons with disabilities who need support as they look for employment, to create proper conditions for them to perform their work duties, to speed up workplace adaptation, and to form routes for them to get to and from work and around employer’s grounds.
As implementation of this law will require joint efforts of the federal and regional authorities, the decision was made to develop an appropriate action plan for its practical implementation starting January 1, 2019.
The meeting participants discussed the measures that were taken to improve the operation of employment services, plans to create an infrastructure for developing inclusive education with 16 training and methodological centres at higher education institutions and 80 core professional training organisations, and the opening of a website for inclusive higher education.
According to the Ministry of Labour, the number of jobs for persons with disabilities grew by 37.6 percent, or 117,200 in 2017. In the first nine months of 2017, 122,000 persons with disabilities applied to employment services (an increase of 14.7 percent), of whom over 60,000 have found work (an increase of 50.4 percent). However, persons with disabilities, including the young, have difficulties in finding work and getting employed.
A number of resolutions were passed at the end of the meeting.
The Commission members were informed about preparations for the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to review, in February-April 2018, a report On measures taken to comply with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and progress made in observance of the rights of persons with disabilities in the two years since its entry into force for the Russian Federation.