WHAT IS JOBSENSE?


JOBSENSE uses Specialist Employment Advisers to support people with a sensory loss, through a range of interventions tailored to the needs and circumstances of the individual to achieve the following outcomes: 

Confidence building and vocational skills: 

  • Knowledge, skills and work behaviours
  • Skills relating to developing applications for work
  • Problem solving, communicating and relationship management
  • Emotional resilience and confidence
  • Manage money more carefully 


Practical help: 

  • Transport challenges
  • Identifying realistic and appropriate options for work
  • Information on vacancies in association with Job Centre Plus et al
  • Referrals to training programmes to learn additional skills, including accredited training and qualifications relevant to the participant’s journey towards work
  • Referral to further and higher education programs
  • Awareness of technology that can support sensory loss in the workplace
  • Providing access to work experience, work placements, volunteering opportunities and job tasters through a wide range of employers 


Specific outcomes for each participant exiting the programme could be: 

  • Supporting them into employment
  • Completing work experience placement or volunteering opportunity
  • Gaining a qualification or work relevant certification
  • Or engaging in job search. 


The JOBSENSE project also employs specialist Employer Engagement Coordinators to liaise with businesses across Wales to identify and facilitate suitable vacancies. We hope they will leave a legacy of employers better informed on the needs and support.

The project has been supported by the European Social Fund through the Welsh Government and will be delivered across West Wales & the Valleys, in partnership with





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ELITE Supported Employment Agency,

COS (Centre of Sign, Sight and Sound),

Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind

Agoriad Cyf

  • One to one

An experienced advisor will help you on your journey. 

  • Work Experience 

We engage with employers who offer work experience or volunteering opportunities

  • Qualification

We can help you gain a qualification or work relevant certificate.

  • Technology and aids

We can provide awareness on technology which aids sensory loss in the workplace. 

JOBSENSE has been funded by the European Social Fund

 to find employment for people who are aged 25 and over that have sight and/or hearing loss 

Helping employers. 

We work with employers to ensure that they receive useful information and support to be able to successfully recruit people with hearing and/or sight loss into their organisations in an accessible and sustainable way. 

Providing advice on relevant support programmes, such as Access to Work - the government programme aimed at supporting disabled people to take up or remain in work. 

We liaise directly with employers to identify and facilitate suitable vacancies and then provide support into employment. 

Helping people. 

By using Specialist Employment Advisers, we are able to support people with sight and/or hearing loss, through a range of interventions tailored to the needs and circumstances of the individual. 

We can review abilities, skills, interests and goals, help explore learning and training opportunities, support to overcome any barriers to finding employment and provide advice on applying for jobs, completing a CV, and attending an interview. 

​WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR JOBSENSE?


​People with a sensory loss face significant barriers to work. For example, a recent survey of employers revealed that 75% of respondents would sooner employ an ex-convict than a person with vision loss. 

A person who is Deaf or has hearing loss is FOUR TIMES more likely to be out of work than a hearing person. And yet people with a hearing loss or who are deaf have the same aspirations and work ethic as someone who is hearing. 

People registered as blind or partially sighted are nearly FIVE TIMES more likely to be unemployed for five years or more than the general population. 

A person who is profoundly Deaf may use BSL (British Sign Language) as their first language and may be unable to read or write fluently in English, but very few employers publish their vacancies in a subtitled video, or in BSL. 

Most vacancies require applicants to complete an online application form and submit a written CV but many people with a visual impairment will be digitally excluded because of poor accessibility features, caused by a lack of sensory loss awareness amongst those designing online applications. 

Perhaps the greatest barrier faced by people with a sensory loss is mistaken and out-of-date employer attitudes. People with a sensory loss are NOT automatically a “health and safety risk” or an additional cost. It may be that a typical modification in the workplace to accommodate someone with a sight loss is as simple as “don’t leave bags in the pathway; don’t leave mugs near the edge of your table”; a person with a hearing loss may need only an adapted telephone and colleagues who are “deaf aware” to be completely effective and safe in the workplace.