Kempton school attends disability summit
The expo is an important platform to highlight how workplace inclusion of people with disabilities needs to be prioritised.
Students from Belgium Campus iTversity in Kempton Park were among the 45 schools and tertiary institutions that attended last week’s Disability Summit and Career Expo.
The expo, Africa’s largest gathering for promoting and enabling employment opportunities for people with disabilities, took place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre at Nasrec.
This year’s two-day event saw disabled learners from over 45 schools discover corporate career opportunities and what companies require when attracting people with disabilities into their employment.
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The Road Accident Fund (RAF) was again the headline sponsor for this year’s expo.
This state-supported insurance fund partnered with this annual initiative to provide valid and relevant information to these students, graduates, and entrepreneurs with physical or intellectual disabilities.
The benefits of hiring persons with disabilities may be acknowledged, yet demystifying and highlighting the largely marginalised disability sector, as well as accessing relevant skills within this sector, remains a challenge.
Only one in nine South Africans living with a disability are employed.
The expo is an important platform to highlight how workplace inclusion of people with disabilities needs to be prioritised.
Learners attending this year’s summit connected with over 30 corporates and heard from various inspirational speakers about what opportunities await them after school.
The summit also included career demonstrations, exhibitions of wheelchair tennis, blind cricket, foot-and-mouth painters and a guest appearance by marathon runner Ipeleng ‘Crazy Legs’ Khunou, who runs marathons on his crutches to raise awareness about what people with disabilities can achieve.
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“Effecting transformative change in the disability arena takes a collaborative effort, and it is for this reason that we once again partnered on this year’s Disability Summit and Career Expo,” said the Road Accident Fund corporate social responsibility manager, Noluthando Mvabaza.
“This event helped to inspire these learners and reiterated the valuable asset they can be to corporate South Africa.”
The RAF plays an essential role in South Africa by providing appropriate cover to all road users within the borders of South Africa.
This includes rehabilitating and compensating persons injured after a motor vehicle accident to help them rebuild their lives.
“Our vision is to ensure that people with disabilities are integrated back into the society and the economy,” said Mvabaza.
