Job Interview and Vocational Outcomes Among Transition-Age Youth Receiving Special Education Pre-Employment Transition Services

Abstract

Vocational outcomes among transition-age youth receiving special education services are critically poor and have only incrementally improved since the implementation of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. Few studies highlight whether interviewing may be critical to obtaining vocational outcomes such as competitive employment or internships. This study evaluated vocational interviewing and outcomes among 656 transition-age youth receiving special education pre-employment transition services from 47 schools. Results suggest 20.8% of these youth were currently employed, and 88.8% of these employed youth interviewed prior to obtaining their job, which is higher than anecdotal evidence suggests and speaks to the importance of job interview skills as an intervention target for special education pre-employment transition services. We discuss the implications and directions for further study.

Scaling Out Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Youth: A Quasi-Experimental Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Study

“…Job interviewing is one of many pre-employment transition skills identified by the U.S. Department of Education (2017), and 88.8% of employed youth with disabilities receiving state-supported Pre-ETS completed interviews to get their jobs (M. J. Smith, Sherwood, Blajeski, et al, 2021).…”

“…D. Smith, Berkel, Jordan, et al, 2018). Finally, we adapted the student-level acceptability and usability measures from our evaluation of VR-JIT to assess VIT-TAY (M. J. Smith, Smith, et al, 2021) and rescaled them for equivalence.…”

“…Job interviewing is one of many pre-employment transition skills identified by the U.S. Department of Education (2017), and 88.8% of employed youth with disabilities receiving state-supported Pre-ETS completed interviews to get their jobs (M. J. Smith, Sherwood, Blajeski, et al, 2021). Furthermore, job interviews are a critical component of obtaining a job and pose a major barrier to employment for individuals with disabilities.…”

“…Pre-ETS is federally mandated by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA, 2014) to serve 14-to 21-yearold special education students commonly referred to as "transition-age youth" (WIOA, 2014).A recent study of 656 youth receiving Pre-ETS revealed that 88.8% of employed youth completed an interview prior to obtaining their job (M. J. Smith, Sherwood, Blajeski, et al, 2021), suggesting the importance of navigating job interviews for employment. Relatedly, job interview skills were identified as a critical component of job readiness training by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (2017).…”

“…A recent study of 656 youth receiving Pre-ETS revealed that 88.8% of employed youth completed an interview prior to obtaining their job (M. J. Smith, Sherwood, Blajeski, et al, 2021), suggesting the importance of navigating job interviews for employment.…”