Knowledge and Skill Competencies for Job Coaches Who Provide On-the-Job Supports to Individuals With Disabilities

Abstract

Most state rehabilitation agencies collaborate with community rehabilitation providers (CRPs) to provide job placement and on-the-job support services. Despite efforts from CRPs to provide on-the-job supports to individuals with disabilities, competitive integrated employment rates for individuals with disabilities, especially those with more significant disabilities, remain poor. One way to improve employment outcomes is to ensure that those providing comprehensive supports are competent in knowledge and skills necessary for their job. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to validate key competencies created for the workplace supports (WPS) training. The WPS training is designed specifically for job coaches who provided on-the-job supports to employees with disabilities. One hundred eighty-four job coaches, employment supervisors working for CRPs, and job coach trainers participated in a survey to validate 24 knowledge and 13 skill competencies. We used descriptive statistics to describe respondent’s demographic data and their ratings of the knowledge and skill competency items and ANOVA to assess for differences by position and training. Overall, participants rated both knowledge and skill competencies as highly applicable to job coaches, with mean scores above 4.5 out of 5 with some variations in ratings based on job title and training completed.