The Australian Employers Network positions disability and "disability confidence" as a key priority for employers and Australian businesses.
Although "Diversity" and "Retention", are contemporary H.R. mantras,
comparatively few Australian employers successfully and routinely recruit from the entire talent pool. These few leading Australian employers have developed resilient and future oriented workforces by actively improving the percentage of their workforce with disability.
The Stepping into Program started within the Networks leading Law firms in 2005 and now encompasses law, banking, accountancy, IT and Human resources as a national program. Participating companies want to know "who" or which sub sets of the talent pool they are missing out on. As a tailored 'pre grad ' program the Stepping into program resolved this issue and provided data to guide improving the reach of the mainstream graduate program.
A strategic research layer across three years Stepping into Internships reveals a "quaternity" of partnerships. These are between the Employing Stepping into partner, Stepping into interns with Disability, Partner Universities and educational institutes with students with disability and the Australian Employers Network on Disability. Research from three years of Stepping into programs will be presented covering the following domains : the career and vocational agency of the intern; the "disability confidence" of employers; and the contribution the Stepping into program makes to the educational experience and work integrated learning opportunities for students and new professionals who have disability.