Jobs boost for disabled

BEING disabled is no bar to your dream job and a voluntary organisation aims to replicate the good news story experienced by a young woman who has been wheelchair-bound since a car accident.

Kirby Ruben, from Mallow, Co Cork, suffered a spinal injury in a car crash when she was just 16. Nine years on, despite the disability, she’s got a job she loves and employers who think she’s brilliant.

Ms Ruben’s father was the first qualified male beautician in Ireland, so she had an interest from an early age in doing massage and beauty treatments.

Last May, the voluntary body the Irish Association of Supported Employment secured her a work placement at the Sheraton Fota Island & Spa.

It went so well that she now has a part-time job there, and being a young mother it suits her down to the ground.

Silke Cleymans, the hotel’s HR executive, can’t speak highly enough of the 25-year-old.

“She’s a really good member of the team. We get so many compliments about her, she’s fantastic,” Ms Cleymans said.

Last year, Ms Ruben was one of 358 people who participated in the Irish Association of Supported Employment’s Job Shadow Initiative. She was one of 19 to acquire jobs.

This year the organisation hopes to do even better and get 500 disabled jobseekers onto its books, and more into employment.

David Ryan, a national executive member of the Irish Association of Supported Employment, said 20 companies in Cork had signed up to the initiative and he was hoping that figure will be even higher by the time the scheme gets off the ground on April 22.

Any disabled people interested in the scheme can contact him at 087-7976895.