Case Studies on Employment of People with Disabilities in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Germany

The German case studies are based on interviews with people from various firms and with experts from welfare offices and employment offices as part of the evaluation of a special labour market progamme on the occupational integration of the particularly severely disabled in 19 firms in North Rhine-Westphalia. Three case studies give examples of good practice in integrating workers with varying degrees of disability and various occupations in small businesses. Studies for this project were conducted in six Member States. National research teams were given the opportunity to conduct the case-study research in accordance with their own views and experience and following their own approach and methodologies, the aim being to take into account the particular context of the country and each enterprise. They considered the process by which an employer identifies a need to employ someone, a person with a disability seeks employment, and a contractual relationship is established and maintained.