Friday, October 21, an international seminar titled “Employment of Persons with Disabilities: Moving into Labour Market” will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija in Riga organised by the Ministry of Welfare in cooperation with the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia and Embassy of Finland in Latvia. The seminar will highlight the potential of people with disabilities when they are motivated to acquire professional skills and thus are able to integrate in the labour market. The seminar will also discuss how people with mental disabilities and handicapped persons can integrate into the labour market with the help of social entrepreneurship initiatives.
The seminar will be attended by a number of prominent speakers: Ingus Alliks, the State Secretary of Latvian Welfare Ministry, the ambassador of Finland Olli Kantanen, the Acting Director of State Employment Agency, Evita Simsone, the Director of Social Integration State Agency, Ilona Jurševska, as well as a number of lecturers from the Nordic countries. Finland will be represented by Eveliina Pöyhönen and Päivi Mattila-Wiro from the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, by the research manager Dr. Antti Teittinen from the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities as well as Tiina Meriläinen, Director of the Validia Vocational School. Frank-Håvard Storvik from Norway will be representing Nordland Regional Hospital’s Competence Centre for Employment and Mental Health, whereas the Danish perspective will be given by Marie Obling Møller, who is a mentor and project manager at the Association of Youth with Disabilities.
The seminar can be watched online from 10:00 am:
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