Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) is Vocational Rehabilitation for young people. The services and activities coincide with those provided to all individuals using Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to further their career and employment goals, but are tailored to the needs of young people still completing their educations.
Vocational Rehabilitation for Students and Youth
In 2014, Title IV of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act - or WIOA for short - amended Title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Rehabilitation Act outlines the responsibilities of the states to provide Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services to people with disabilities. WIOA addresses VR considerations for young people.
Vocational rehabilitation is made up of a series of services, training, and counseling that help people with disabilities get or keep gainful employment. Some of these services include vocational assessment and evaluation, training, upgrading of general skills, refresher courses, on-the-job training, career counseling, employment searches, and consulting with potential or existing employers for job accommodations and modification.
For young people, these services also include:
- Job exploration counseling
- Work-based learning experiences
- Counseling on educational opportunities
- Workplace readiness training
- Instruction in self-advocacy
WIOA is designed to strengthen and improve the nation’s public workforce development system by helping Americans with barriers to employment, including individuals with disabilities, achieve high quality careers.
WIOA also added additional guidelines to provide young people with expanded Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) to help them move towards successful careers by preparing them for the challenges of higher education, career planning, and job hunting.
Learn more about the Vocational Rehabilitation process.
WIOA Pre-ETS Focus
WIOA seeks to provide young people with skills to help them achieve future careers by providing:
Job exploration counseling
WIOA wants to make sure young people are getting the information they need to help them decide on their future careers. This includes discussion or information on:
- Labor market
- In-demand industries/occupations
- Non-traditional employment options
- Identification of career pathways of interest
- Career awareness and gaining knowledge of career paths and the skills/qualifications necessary to be successful in those positions
- Career speakers
Work-based learning experiences
To help young people get more information on potential careers, WIOA asks that DSB provides work-based learning experiences, which may include in-school or after school opportunities, or experience outside the traditional school setting (including internships), as well as:
- Job shadowing
- Career mentorship
- Information interview
- Simulated workplace experience
- Volunteering
- Workplace tours/field trips
Counseling on educational opportunities
Education relates to career. DSB provides young people opportunities to learn about training programs, college majors, and other options to learn the skills needed to move into the career of choice. DSB has programs to discuss and introduce young people to things like:
- Community colleges (AA/AS degrees, certificate programs/classes)
- Universities (Public/Private)
- Career pathways related workshops/training programs
- Trade/technical schools
- Military
Workplace readiness training
Since there’s more to a career than knowing how to do the job, WIOA and DSB want to make sure young people have the “soft skills” that are important in today’s workplace. This includes:
- Social/interpersonal skills
- Communication
- Positive attitude
- Teamwork
- Problem solving
- Talking/writing
- Cooperation
- Active listening
- Decision making
- Conflict resolution
- Body language
- Empathy
- Professionalism
- Good manners
- Supporting others
- Respectfulness
- Independent Living Skills
- Good hygiene
- Time management
- Healthy lifestyle
- Using cell phone
- Using transportation
- Money management
- Nutrition/meal prep
- Accessing community services/supports
- Community participation
- Civic responsibility
- Community safety
- Developing friendships
- Appropriate dress
- Appropriate behavior
- Other soft skills
- Financial literacy
- Orientation and Mobility
- Job seeking skills
Instruction in Self-advocacy
To make sure students and youth with disabilities can get the supports they need to succeed in school, college, and at work, DSB works to help teach things like:
- Disability mentoring
- Group mentoring
Request DSB services for children, youth, or students online. Or contact us at 800-552-7103 or info@dsb.wa.gov for more information.