Inclusion in the Workforce for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Case Study of a Spanish Postsecondary Education Program

The Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) is the first Spanish university to provide training to young people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the university environment, which qualifies them for inclusion in the workforce. In this practice brief we describe the UAM-Prodis Patronage Chair program, a successful model used at Spanish universities within the European Higher Education convention framework, which addresses the inclusion and occupational training of young people with ID in order to help them obtain employment. We begin with a review of the special education system for young people with ID in Spain. We report outcome data for students with ID who completed the program at UAM during its first four years of implementation. These outcomes indicate that the UAM-Prodis Patronage Chair program has become one of the main strategies to achieve independent living and community integration of people with ID through a postsecondary education option.