State and National Projects

Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND)

The Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND) is the peak professional body for Disability Practitioners in the Tertiary Education and Training sector.

The ATEND National Committee is made up of a representatives from NDCO and the Training & University Sectors within each state.

• ATEND organises the Pathways Conference that is held bi-annually
• Regular submits submissions on key topics or addressing barriers – read more here
• Facilitates the Aust-Ed email list, a closed list, to drive discussion and information-sharing among disability practitioners and teachers within the post-secondary education sector.  For more information: austed-list online form.

USEP

The University Specialist Employment Partnership (USEP) is a service model that bases a specialist disability consultant one day per week on a university campus, and aims to meet the specific needs of graduating or graduated students with disability seeking employment. 

https://www.usep.com.au/

As part of USEP, a project entitled ‘What Happens If I Tell You?’ will be undertaking in 2019.  Drawing from the latest survey data from Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE), it revealed that graduates with disability equated to 2%.  From discussions held with AAGE (Australian Association of Graduate Employers) members have indicated that they are interested in sourcing graduates with disability to build diversity in their workplace.  The employers referred to, would like to encourage graduates with disability to disclose during the application phase. This disclosure will enable employers to ensure that current recruitment processes and embedded practices provide a platform for equal access. This is important as one of the reasons(evidence-based) for graduates reluctantly willing to share personal information is due to past perceived discrimination.  ‘What Happens If I Tell You?’ Project will aim to bridge this gap by videoing graduate employers talking about their focus on building diversity in their workplace and the benefits of sharing personal information during the application process, what they do with the information, etc.