The Workforce Recruitment Program for Students with Disabilities
The Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities (WRP) is a recruitment and referral program that connects public and private sector employers nationwide with highly motivated college students and recent graduates with disabilities who are eager to prove their abilities in the work-place through summer or permanent jobs.
The WRP provides students and recent graduates with disabilities in all fields of study the opportunity to market their abilities to a wide variety of potential employers across the United States, sharpen their interviewing skills during a required phone interview with a WRP recruiter, and gain valuable skills, experience, and contacts on the job.
Applicants for the program must:
- have an intellectual disability, severe physical disability, or psychiatric disability which makes the candidate eligible to use the Schedule A hiring authority; AND
- be a U.S. citizen; AND
- be enrolled in an accredited institution of higher education on a substantially full-time basis (unless the severity of the disability precludes the student from taking a substantially full-time load) to seek a degree; OR
- be enrolled in such an institution as a degree-seeking student taking less than a substantially full-time load in the enrollment period immediately prior to graduation; OR
- have graduated from such an institution within the past year.
The WRP is run on an annual basis and requires applicants to have a phone interview with one of their recruiters. The interviews take place from October through mid-November of each year. The WRP is coordinated on college campuses by Disability Services or Career Services offices. Currently, over 270 colleges and universities participate in the program, and additional campuses are added each year. They had over 2,900 candidates in the 2013 database.
Interested students and recent graduates are encouraged to contact Debbie Rowe-Millwood in the CDO as soon as possible.