“We love getting to see the little wins every day”: Jigsaw community engagement lead Liam Zammit with senior trainer Tim Dent. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
There’s a young man in Canberra’s Jigsaw Academy “who’s the funniest bloke you’ll ever meet”, Jigsaw trainer Tim Dent says.
“He has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal, and super intelligent.”
Assisted by the wonders of technology (through his iPad), the participant is “very expressive and demonstrative”.
“He’s just full of joy, it’s rare he has a bad day and he’s always poking fun, but underneath all that you know he has a really great brain and wants to apply it,” Tim says.
This young man also happens to love Nordic Noir, a genre of thriller crime fiction that has inspired him on the path to starting a legal studies course at CIT – thanks to the efforts and encouragement of Jigsaw trainers.
Jigsaw is a social enterprise that trains and helps transition people with disabilities into mainstream employment – in their own time and at their own pace.
Tim says the ultimate win for participants is securing open employment.
“But we also love getting to see the little wins every day: someone who might come in shy, with very few words, getting out of their shell, building their confidence and seeing them realise their own potential.”
That potential can be anything from starting a university course to taking up a paid position at Parliament House or the National Library.
With one-on-one and group training combined with “close mentoring”, Jigsaw is big on ‘real’ work experience and individualised support for about 60 NDIS participants ranging in age from 18 to 35 years, according to Tim.
“We lean in to their strengths,” he says.
“We sit down and work out the foundations, their likes and dislikes, their interests – are they into maths, are they creatively inclined or detail oriented?
“Sometimes if a participant is on the autism spectrum, for example, they are good at focusing on details, they like rules and predictability and that can open up a pathway into the police force as a forensic investigator.”
At the heart of the Jigsaw model is a document and data management business, which provides the building blocks for training and paid work for participants while providing services to corporate and government clients, such as local councils and Arnott’s.
The team takes on big contracts digitising paper files for organisations and empowering participants to learn file management, scanning and vital cross-checking processes of office administration.
Along the way, they also learn a lot about teamwork- and themselves – while attaining 20 specific work-readiness skills Jigsaw calls transferable skills.
Those transferable skills range from personal presentation, body language and reliability to communication, conflict management and (accepting) feedback.
“We believe these skills help any participant improve their likelihood of getting a variety of jobs – plus they’re great life skills,” Tim says.
“But one of the big reasons people love coming here is the social side of things – I’ve never laughed so much in a job as I have here.”
What sets Jigsaw apart from other providers is that the support goes both ways, according to community engagement lead Liam Zammit.
“We find businesses that match up with the interests and skills of our participants,” he says.
Such two-way connections are essential given Jigsaw Australia reports more than 50 per cent of managers have never hired or worked with a person with disability, and 71 per cent have faced too many barriers when trying to do so.
Government Disability Employment Services data shows that only about 30 per cent of placements made through these services achieve a 12-month outcome. Common criticisms from both job-seekers and employers are that candidates are placed before they are truly job-ready and do not receive adequate support.
By comparison, Jigsaw reports that 91 per cent of people employed or placed into jobs by Jigsaw retain their employment to this day.
So far this year, Jigsaw Canberra, which has been in operation for about 18 months, has placed five people in open employment.
“We are gaining more momentum as businesses come on board, and they, in turn, refer more businesses to us,” Liam says.
Liam has been inspired by the stories of success from businesses with a genuine appetite to create meaningful change.
At a recent Canberra Business Chamber breakfast, he met the owners of a mechanics business who spoke about a six-week program with on-the-floor training they had developed.
“They had a person in their family with a disability and carved out appropriate tasks for them to be able to work in the business – and it branched out from there,” Liam says.
“They spoke about what is possible and how you can do it.
“We want more businesses like that!”
For more information, visit Jigsaw.
