Disability in the workplace: preparing student engineers, future managers…

Three companies and four organizations were present to share their experiences, reassure and give tips to students on the issue : how to ensure the integration of a handicapped person into an organization and its team.

For several years, under the influence of Sylvie Guidal, disability support officer, ENSTA Bretagne has invited its students to a handicap awareness event: 

« It is to show our future engineers what it is to recruit, manage and integrate handicapped people into their work team by bringing them solutions (tools, sharing experiences, human resources etc).   

The 2019 event brought 7 companies and organizations together with experience in this issue:

• LADAPT , an association which mentors the handcapped
• the international company Bertrandt
• LSF 29, the French sign language association (Don Bosco)
• Arkéa, the cooperative banking and insurance group
• The Valentin Haüy Association, for the blind and visually challenged
• the Genêts d’Or (on the subject of autism),
• Thales

During the themed workshops, the students could compare their idea of handicap with the real thing, especially via a quiz ; 80% of handicaps are invisible, only 15% are from birth (the others occur later in life)…Other angles which were explored were: legislation, support organizations, financial help, tools…

In addition, staff testimonials highlighted the need to anticipate and prepare for the arrival of handicapped personnel (adaptation of the workplace, installation of tools…), to accompany the teams (alleviate fear and eliminate prejudices), and to guarantee long term support to ensure the handicapped person is really integrated into the company.

The students’ questions, which were numerous throughout the afternoon, confirmed their interest in the issue of « living and working together ».