as, activities that focused on job seeking and job keeping skills. The sessions were presented in the
following order:
• Session #1: The Job Readiness Challenge (Self-Awareness)
• Session #2: What Jobs Are Out There (Career Exploration)
• Session #3: Setting Your Goals (Discrepancy Analysis)
• Session #4: Finding Your First Job (Job Exploration)
• Session #5: Building Your Profile (Job Seeking)
• Session #6: Preparing for the Interview (Job Seeking)
• Session #7: Acing the Interview (Job Seeking)
• Session #8: Getting Ready for Work (Job Keeping)
• Session #9: Polishing Your Skills
• Session #10: Finalizing Your Action Plan and Celebrating Your Success
Follow-up activities were determined by consensus and incorporated into participants' Action Plans.
The PEP affords hands-on learning about the world of work and direct instruction in online job
searching skills, resume writing, interviewing skills, and the like. There are multiple opportunities during
the program to meet adults with visual impairments and discuss their career paths as well as to socialize
with peers who have similar visual disabilities. In addition, there is structured time with hiring professionals
and disability experts from leading corporations. Finally, the PEP makes use of a social media program,
Yammer, and encourages engagement and support in a business-like climate through its use. Yammer,
developed by Microsoft, is typically used by companies as a private social media network. The use of
Yammer offers students another business tool to add to their "toolbox" of skills. It is highly accessible with
screen readers and because it closely resembles Facebook, staff felt the students would take to it like
digital natives. The program also allows the facilitators to post discussion topics and/or reminders and
engage with the students in their off weeks.
For the Spring 2016 pilot offering, fifteen participants were accepted; however, only thirteen young
adults attended consistently. They ranged in age from 14 to 20 years old. A Perkins on-campus TVI and
VIDBE-Q
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