Tonight at the Zero Project Conference, the Stepping Into Program will be presented as an Awardee for Innovative Practices in Employment.
The Zero Project is a global initiative with a 5,000 strong network across 150 countries, dedicated to sharing innovative practices and policies to support people with disability. This year the awards focused on employment and ICT with 66 employment awardees and 16 ICT awardees ranging from 47 countries. Out of a total of 475 nominations, AND is proud to be one of the awardees.
From 2005, the Stepping Into Program has successfully matched over 1,500 students with disability in internships across leading organisations throughout Australia.
AND would like to acknowledge our members who have made our Stepping Into program so successful. You have led the way in your commitment to an inclusive and equitable workforce. See the full list of organisations that have participated in the program (Word, 1.5 MB).
Our feedback from students who have participated in the program has been consistently positive, with 99% of Stepping Into alumni recommending the program in a 2018 Impact Review.
Congratulations to all our members who made this achievement possible.
We're exceptionally proud of this award as last year, we saw our host organisations and interns adapt to a new way of working in response to COVID.
Host organisations embraced the options to work flexibly, developed communication plans to support regular check-in's with interns, discussed workplace adjustments for the new work arrangements and set clear expectations to allow the interns to thrive in a tumultuous year.
For many interns, working from home was not the struggle they feared, but became a huge part of their success in their respective roles.
"I think I expected working from home to be the biggest challenge but truthfully, I'm finding it quite comfortable to the extent I've noticed I'm more productive!" – Ashly Dahdal, intern at NSW Department of Customer Service
