Abstract:

This case-study researched disabled students’ practices, experiences and transferable knowledge attained through a specific training module, communication, and customer service. The name of this innovative course is “Digital Literacy for Labour Market”, which is a pilot training opportunity implemented in a HEI (Higher Education Institution). This type of initiative has already been implemented in other higher education institutions, such as the case of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, where a special programme for young students with intellectual disabilities, The Promentor Programme, was established. The aim of this project is the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in universities through several pedagogical and methodological processes (Gasset & Herrero, 2016).

This paper presents the outcomes of students with intellectual disabilities who were included in an innovative and adapted learning environment, and were taught to develop soft and hard skills, namely key competencies related to communication, costumer service and basic concepts of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). In addition, this study exposes the views of the trainers, as well as other results and adopted best practices, in order to fully understand the students’ learning curve.

Finally, concerning the methodological processes used to monitor this experience, a systematic approach was adopted, in which the following approaches were applied:
(i) representation of different social situations through role play techniques that allowed different communicative capacities to be put into practice;
(ii) customer or user service techniques adapted to the students’ knowledge in order to understand different cases or scenarios;
(iii) strategies and techniques of communication adapted to the content to be presented to the students, with the purpose of including the characteristics of the receivers and ensuring efficiency in the communication processes.

In conclusion, further studies that adopt these types of learning experiences and specific target groups will need to adopt even more alternatives that understand and approach every pedagogical need that these learners may have.

Keywords:

Communication, customer service, learning modules, innovative curriculum design, new pedagogical and didactic practices.