Careers support for disabled candidates

Annie Mannion | 18 May 2021

If you are disabled and need support in your job search, Evenbreak's Career Hive can help you.

It’s a new, free careers service for disabled candidates, designed and run by disabled people.

Understanding barriers disabled people can face

Placard reading 'Disabled people for the future'

There are many places that offer careers support. But Evenbreak, an accessible job search site for disabled people, reports that its disabled candidates were telling them that often the careers support available wasn’t suitable or accessible for them.

"Either it wasn’t relevant to disabled candidates," says Evenbreak's Director, Jane Hatton, "and was perhaps delivered by careers coaches with little understanding of the disabling barriers they face, or the provision had restrictive eligibility criteria – dependent on their post code, or their age. Or they’d be ‘too disabled’ or ‘not disabled enough’ or have the ‘wrong’ impairment. Or the support was a prescriptive programme which assumes everyone needs the same kind of support," she says.

So, Evenbreak developed the Career Hive, which offers relevant and accessible careers support specifically for disabled people looking for work.

Need to improve your workplace accessibility? Speak to our experts.

Delivered by those with lived experience

The service has been developed by and is delivered by disabled careers professionals with lived experience of the barriers disabled people can face. 

Career Hive offers users the following: 

  • Receive one-to-one coaching sessions from our Career Coaches
  • Find support organisations near you
  • Access online resources
  • Search for jobs on its specialist job board  
  • Attend online workshops and webinars
  • join in ‘Meet the Employer’ events

The service is free, and has no complicated eligibility criteria – if you are disabled and would like support in your job search, Career Hive is available to you.

Watch our webinar recording: How to do accessible, inclusive recruitment, which includes top tips from Microsoft and AbilityNet.

Peer support and mentoring

"You may just want some advice on your CV, or some interview preparation, or you may want more long-term support on confidence-building or identifying transferable skills," Jane says. "You’ll receive bespoke support that meets your needs in ways accessible to you."

The service was co-produced by the Evenbreak team (all of whom are disabled) and a focus group of Evenbreak candidates. "We wanted to ensure that the service met the real needs of disabled candidates," says Jane. 

Other services planned for the future include offering peer support from successful candidates who can mentor and support other candidates.

Watch the captioned video to find out more about the Career Hive system:

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