Scanfil Atlanta Factory Supports Disabled Students in their Employment Path

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A person with a disability might have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments. These may hinder a person’s full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. These hinders may affect a person’s possibilities to get employed and integrate as part of society.

In the U.S. workforce, the participation rate of people with disabilities is 21.6% whereas people without disabilities are as high as 67.3%. The unemployment rate shows a similar trend. People with disabilities have twice as high an unemployment rate as the people without disabilities, 10.9% compared to 5.0%. In some countries, especially in developing countries, the situation might be even more segregated.

Leave no one behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN Member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination, and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and humanity as a whole.

Scanfil Group and Scanfil Atlanta are committed to LNOB. Scanfil’s Atlanta joined Project SEARCH, a nationwide program in the U.S. established in 1996 where the local school system teams up with local businesses to help train disabled students who will soon graduate. The goal is to give the interns working experiences to find workplaces successfully.

Atlanta factory will have four gentlemen with each for three ten-week internships in different departments within Scanfil. Interns participate in the same new hire orientation as all Scanfil Atlanta associates do to understand the handbook, Core Values, Policies, and Code of Ethics. At the end of the first ten-week internship, the interns have an exit interview to give the supervisor feedback about their experience.  As well as explain what they learned and where they improved.

After each internship period, the interns will be interview again with the new supervisors before the next ten-week internship starts. In May 2022, there will be graduating from the program. We hope to have all of the interns working with us in the future as full-time associates.

The entire Scanfil Atlanta team has responded to the program and the interns. Everyone has embraced them with open arms and are more than willing to help, mentor, and train. Leave no one behind.