Abstract:

According to data from the Universia Foundation, there are 1,774,800 people in Spain with mental disabilities through the working age-stage (16 to 44 years old). Activity rate from this population is scarce, only 33.9% if compared to people without disabilities (78.1%). Concerning the university environments, 17,634 scholars are suffering from functional diversity in Spain, from which 18% experiment any cognitive functional diversity issue. Also, current data reveals a precise negative balance concerning inclusion in Spanish universities. From the earlier mentioned population, approximately 268,633 are at high risk of exclusion; and are functional-intellectual diagnosed with over 33% disability. Among these diagnosed population, approximately 74,672 are in the working-age spectrum. Yet people with functional intellectual diversity constitute a vulnerable population upon many types of exclusion. In the education system, the visibility and empowerment of people from the cultural identity (ID) perspective are crucial for the achievement of universal rights. It also constitutes a step towards a more equitable and global person-centred system. From a pioneering perspective, this study aims at examining the barriers and elements of success after three years of implementing specific programmes like Promentor (Universidad Autónoma), in Madrid, Spain. Apart from the Region of Madrid, there are other similar programmes at the national level, like Demos (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas), Capacitas (Universidad Católica San Antonio, Murcia), one more at Universidad Miguel Hernández (Elche and Spazzo), shared with the Universidad de La Coruña. In sum, throughout this paper, we emphasise on the most relevant elements encompassing these programmes like, for example, student accessibility, teacher training, internships in hiring companies, meetings and conferences between universities and employers, training programmes.

Keywords:

Labour insertion, university, training programmes, intellectual disability.