Background of the project

People with partial work ability may face difficulties in finding employment. This can be due to negative stereotypes and internalised stigma, for example. However, illnesses that reduce work ability rarely affect a person’s professional competence. OSTY project aims to help people in the target group to find employment by strengthening their self-efficacy.

The target group of the project consists of people with partial work ability who have at least 50% of their work ability remaining and whose reduced work ability is caused by reasons that are not visible to other people. Invisible symptoms include, for example, various chronic pain conditions, mental health challenges, gastrointestinal diseases and neurological conditions. People with partial work ability are not a homogeneous group; they are a diverse group whose level of work ability varies individually and can change daily.

In the project, partial work ability is understood in a broad sense. In addition to illness, it can be caused by a difficult situation in life, care responsibilities, a poor workplace atmosphere, or weak leadership. Flexible practices at the workplace, such as remote work, flexible working hours, and part-time work, are essential for supporting the ability to work.

Companies are the indirect target group of the project. For employers, hiring people with partial work ability offers an opportunity to gain skilled and competent employees as long as the employee’s needs are considered holistically.

The project focuses on employers in the ICT sector. The project aims to influence employers’ perceptions, stereotypes, and prevailing biases by highlighting the expertise of people with targeted work ability and the benefits their hiring brings. In addition, a service model to support the recruitment of people with targeted work ability is developed in the project.

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Project objectives and actions

The project’s objective is to strengthen the employment opportunities of people with partial work ability and to promote equality and equity in working life. To achieve this goal, we carry out the following actions in the project:

• Developing a service model aimed especially at micro and solo entrepreneurs to support the recruitment of people with partial work ability
• Organizing coaching for people with partial work ability and who are interested in the ICT field, to strengthen their self-efficacy and to help them to articulate their competences
• Communicating about the project and its theme in, for example, blogs, articles, social media posts and webinars, to correct prevailing perceptions, stereotypes, and biases about the project’s target group and to highlight the benefits of recruiting people with partial work ability