Employment

• Employment Specialist Foundations
• Meaningful Day Services
• Employment Specialist Supplemental
• Registration Details
• Webinar

Employment Specialist Foundations: Basic Knowledge and Skills

Employment Specialist Foundations: Basic Knowledge and Skills is the recently redesigned certification series for New Jersey employment specialists/job coaches. It is a regularly updated four-day series of interactive, competency-based workshops designed for beginning Employment Specialists working for a DVRS Supported Employment Vendor and/or DDD Community Service Provider offering Supported Employment Services. The content would also be beneficial to school job coaches and transition coordinators. Participants will learn best-practice, evidence-based approaches to all phases of supported employment services (assessment and discovery, job development, job coaching, and follow along for job retention). The course is designed to prepare otherwise qualified staff for The Certified Employment Support Professional (CESP) exam by providing an overview of the five core areas identified as crucial for ability to work as a supported employment specialist.

While staff will benefit most by participating in the four training days sequentially, the series is designed so that each day’s content exists as a distinct, stand-alone learning experience. For each day, participants will receive a certificate of attendance. An individual will not be considered to have met the DDD/DVRS vendor requirements for competency in supported employment services until after the successful completion of all four days. It will be the responsibility of the agency to ensure staff meets the four-day participation requirements.

Employment Specialist Foundations Day 1: Assessment/Discovery Phase

An overview and history of community-based employment and how-to strategies for effective job seeker assessment/discovery phase to maximize future job matching

Employment Specialist Foundations Day 2: Job Development Phase

An introduction to job development including marketing strategies, negotiating with employers, analyzing worksites and customizing employment to facilitate good job matching

Employment Specialist Foundations Day 3: Job Coaching Phase

An examination of learning styles, direct and systematic instruction on the job site (task analysis, hierarchy of prompts, teaching to natural and artificial cues, error correction, etc.) and data collection

Employment Specialist Foundations Day 4: Long Term Follow Along Phase

A familiarization with the purposes, strategies and documentation of long term follow along supports to boost retention as well as an introduction to employment and the ADA, benefits and employment, and “typicalness” research and employment

Meaningful Day Services

Meaningful Days Leading to Fulfilling Lives

Expectations for service delivery are changing within our state to continue to mirror national trends and consumer preferences.  Through this training professionals working in day programs will develop a better understanding of what is driving the change in service expectations and the role of the direct support professional in implementing these changes. Participants will explore how the services they provide should be defined by the provision of quality experiences that lead to more fulfilling lives for program participants and more welcoming attitudes in the greater community. The training is designed to encourage day staff to think creatively about services, support strategies, advocacy, and the development of community capacity.

Employment Specialist Supplemental

Employment Specialist Supplemental: A Job Coach's Guide to Teaching Professionalism

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Customer Service for the Employment Specialist

Customer service is an integral part of a successful employment services agency.  This course will assist Employment Specialists to identify all of the customers that receive their services as well as describe strategies that will facilitate effective customer service.  Methods of measuring customer satisfaction will be introduced and how those methods connect with continuous quality improvement will be stressed.

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Customizing Job Development - An Introduction
to What It Is and How It's Done

An increasingly complex job market calls for a more sophisticated approach to job development. This approach is always person-centered and relies on a comprehensive discovery of the job seeker’s skills, interests, strengths, preferences and support needs. The effectiveness of Customized Job Development has been supported by empirical research for years and this workshop will explore the evidence-based, best practice strategies for conducting truly Customized Job Development. This workshop is designed for DDD-approved vendors and other interested parties but will not meet the DVRS requirements for vendors seeking to become approved providers of DVRS-funded customized employment services.

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Documentation

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Ethical Issues in Supported Employment

Employment specialists are often in difficult situations where decision making is challenged by opposing demands, voices, and values. This session will explore the guidelines that should be used to ensure ethical decision making by exploring our professional codes of ethics. Participants will examine common ethical themes that should be utilized to guide decisions in their day-to-day work. Additionally, they will be given ample opportunity to apply an ethical decision making tool to challenging ethical dilemmas in order to come to the best possible resolution. 

Future dates will be posted soon.

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Financial Literacy Training

Financial literacy and money management training is a critical component that is often missing from job preparation for individuals with disabilities. Earning a living through employment is often cited as the road to independence, but proper management of those earnings is how we access our needs, wants, items, and opportunities. This supplemental will focus on the foundational elements of financial literacy, including: assessing money values, creating person-centered monetary goals, conservative budgeting, retirement plans, Social Security benefits considerations, and more. Participants will leave the session with increased knowledge of financial literacy and many ways to disseminate these topics to the individuals they serve, regardless of academic level. 

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Integrating Technology: Job Preparation

and Development

Social services have traditionally been behind the times when it comes to using current and emerging technology to further efforts in the field. This session will dive into a host of different technology that a job coach could use to ready a candidate for their job search or interview, including digital and video resumes and endorsements, remote interviewing software, QR code embedding, and more. From a job developer standpoint, participants will learn how to harness the power of social media to exponentially increase their network and improve their ability to interact with business owners, capitalizing on many open and hidden job leads.

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Introduction to Assistive Technology

While supporting an individual with disabilities in performing their work duties, sometimes challenges emerge that time, teaching, or circumstance will not remedy. This supplemental will provide a spectrum of assistive technology an individual could use to overcome those challenges to better comprehend, navigate, and perform their work at their highest level of independence. Participants will leave the session with examples of a wide variety of assistive technology and software recommendations for use on the job site as well as a greater understanding of how to appropriately assess and match assistive technology to the need. 

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Navigating The Americans with Disabilities Act and Employment: A Guide for Employment Specialists

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Social/Sexual Challenges at the Workplace

Assisting individuals with disabilities as they navigate the social expectations at the workplace is always a challenge, but when situations of a sexual nature arise, the challenge becomes more complex. This supplemental will provide professionals with a social and educational context for why these issues present themselves in the workplace. Participants will leave with tools to appropriately respond to these situations while simultaneously supporting healthy sexuality for the people we serve.

Employment Specialist Supplemental: Supporting Parents and Families:
Navigating Challenging Conversations on the Path to Employment

While no two families experience life in the same way, parents and families of individuals with disabilities often share extraordinary challenges and stressors in their lives. When discussions around employment and independence emerge, many parents become overwhelmed with the perceived risks that come with a decision to further integrate their adult child into the community. This course will explore where parents are coming from in order to fully support their journey, as well as concrete tools and strategies that providers can use to help support and advocate for individuals with disabilities as they work towards employment and independence.

Future dates will be posted soon.

Registration Details

Fee information:

No charge for the following groups:

• Employees of CBVI, DDD, and DVRS
• DDD Qualified Providers
• DVRS approved vendors
• Individuals with disabilities and family members
  

All other registrants - $75 per day for full day courses and $35 per day for 1/2 day courses.

Continuing Education Available for Employment Specialist Foundations:
NJ Social Work, CRCC, NJDOE. View Continuing Education Details

Continuing Education is not available for Employment Specialist Supplemental training

Registration: Register online now

Please note: Submission of the online registration form sends an email request to The Boggs Center and is not a confirmation of registration. Boggs Center staff will register you for the course requested, based on space availability and completion of pre-requisites (if applicable.) You will receive a confirmation when your registration request has been reviewed and approved. If you do not receive a confirmation, please contact us to verify registration and to receive directions and materials.

For more information: Please email Lisa Thomas or call 732-235-9325.

Webinar

Employment For All: A Webinar for Parents and Families on Supported Employment

Supported Employment is a valuable service that assists individuals with disabilities to secure integrated, competitive employment. Many parents, guardians, and family members have questions about how the process works, if it’s appropriate for their loved one, and what their role in the process should be. Please join us as we discuss how essential employment can be in the life of those with disabilities and examine how parents/guardians can contribute to their success.

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School