This research investigates the effect of pre-employment programs for the mentally disabled on their motivation for employment, active job search, and career identity.
Twenty eight mentally disabled people from a rehabilitation facility in Busan participated in a quasi-experimental design of a program. The experimental group contained fourteen individuals and the control group contained the rest. The experimental pre-employment program consisted of total twelve sets and surveys were done to both groups before and after the program.
According to the X2 test and Mann-Whitney U test, both the control and the experimental groups have common traits in sociology of population and diseases. The two groups also share common factors in motivation for employment, active job search, and career identity.
The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was performed in order to find the changes in the experimental and control groups for pre- and post-program. It was discovered that the variable of family support was the only factor illustrating the most effectiveness in motivation for employment I. In motivation for employment II, active job search, and career identity, the experimental group showed a statistically significant gap in scores for pre- and post-program but the control group did not. Thus, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the pre-employment program on the mentally disabled.
keywords: the mental Handicapped, return to community, vocational rehabilitation, group program