Define "Job Coach"
A job coach is a qualified specialist--usually someone employed by an outside agency--who trains and motivates disabled or disadvantaged individuals to ease the transition into a new work environment, and helps them maintain their jobs. Services provided include developing interpersonal skills, job skill assessment, job skill development, advocacy, counseling and travel training.
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History
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Dr. Vikki Brock, a noted executive coach, trainer and expert in the field of personal coaching, says that individualized coaching came into its own during the personal-growth movement of the 1960s and 1970s. However, Dr. Peter David Blanck states that the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the 1990s led to the emergence of job coaching, due to the clause in the legislation requiring employers to provide "reasonable accommodations" in the workplace.
Qualifications
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Indeed.com reports an average annual salary of $57,000 for job coaches as of May 2010. The qualifications for this career vary by state and individual employment situation, with no official path to become a job coach, which causes controversy among the personal coaching community. Organizations such as the International Coach Federation offer certification programs, as do some colleges, but not all programs are fully accredited or universally recognized.
Job coaches work with clients as independent contractors through state and local agencies of vocational rehabilitation or through private companies. Some hold advanced degrees in coaching and other disciplines. According to many state vocational rehabilitation departments, job coaches tend to have a background in social work, psychology, counseling or special education, with several hundred hours of field experience working with the disabled.
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Benefits
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A trained professional job coach provides direct, person-to-person assistance to a disabled, displaced or disadvantaged worker. The client receives an immediate, experience-based assessment of problem areas to overcome obstacles to employment. Ongoing counseling and advocacy, essential parts of the coaching process, make the transition to a new job situation easier for the client.
Misconceptions
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One of the major misconceptions among prospective clients of job coaches is that these vocational training specialists operate much like employment agencies or that job coaches can find a client a job. Job coaches do not usually look for work on the client's behalf, although they may point a client in the right direction by explaining the job search process, help with applications, personal grooming, etiquette and doing mock job interviews to help a client prepare for finding work.
Outlook
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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, citing data from the American Community Survey, persons with disabilities make up 15.1 percent of the total population, including Iraq war veterans with service-connected disabilities who account for 21 percent of the disabled veteran population. This data supports a continuing need for the services job coaches provide and indicates a strong employment outlook for the future.
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References
- New York State Office of Children and Family Services: Vocational Rehabilitation Services Manual
- The Coaching Commons: The Future of Coaching
- Brainline.org: Job Coaching
- "The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Emerging Workforce"; Peter David Blanck; 1998
- U.S. Census Bureau: Disability Characteristics
Resources
- Photo Credit businessman shaking hand image by Jorge Casais from Fotolia.com
