What the WAM Programme Taught Me About Work, Disability and Opportunity

Why is the WAM programme considered by some as a platform for social mobility for individuals with disabilities within local government settings?

The potential of the WAM programme as a catalyst for social mobility for individuals with disabilities in local government settings immediately piqued my interest, especially given my current role as part of the communications team.

At the start of this role, I questioned what the WAM programme did and who it served. As I have progressed, I now see that WAM is designed to increase social mobility for people with disabilities by providing employment pathways in local government and beyond. The programme offers opportunities to explore new careers and helps those who may not have had access before, positioning itself as a significant enabler of advancement for individuals with disabilities.

This seems to be the programme's central aim, even if it is not always made explicit: fostering social mobility for people with disabilities. However, the programme may also have broader goals, such as promoting full employment and inclusion. For participants like me, WAM provides a vital opportunity for career development and broader workplace perspectives, addressing gaps created by past institutional barriers.

Most people I meet in a WAM position fit into two groups: young and inexperienced, or older with varied disabilities and motives, often having missed opportunities or faced greater challenges. For me, my chances were few and unpromising, and in some ways, I didn’t make full use of them.

Regardless, something like the WAM programme —whether in local government, ESB, or the Mental Health Commission—has a clear context for people with different needs. It sharpens your mind to the prospects in today’s evolving workplace. To my understanding, that is the real purpose of this programme for those most involved. Most will not get another position at their employer or a similar one. However, they can now show they have worked for a long period. Many on a WAM contract could not show this before or had been out of employment for a longer period.

Like everyone else, I am having to adapt, again, something that the WAM programme, through its variability, allows people time to do, regardless of where they are, whether in the public service or with a semi-state. That was something I struggled with in previous careers, notably in Education, where the system's rigidity does not allow change to come easily; change is often forced on you rather than you working within the system to bring it about.

In education, being a teacher is a clearly and to be honest definitively defined job, at least at the secondary level. In contrast, the WAM role in a council is improvised and can be hard to understand. While some WAM roles are more defined, most are not. To those looking in from outside, I am in the communications team. Still, I don’t have a defined role. Officially, I am considered a graduate in communications. This is as ambiguous as you want it to be, and that is not a bad thing for someone who might have had a bad experience at work in the recent past, and to be honest, you can grow into the role in whatever you like.

This brings me to the point: the programme's end goal. Namely, is there one? If so, how do I get to it? That is up to me, of course, fundamentally, but unlike most jobs, it must be noted that a WAM job comes with post-placement support, support for obtaining future employment, which, if I require it, would be useful, although, from a more standardised point of view, that has a societal benefit as well, it helps the individual to gain momentum and utility within society, something that in my case I had lost since COVID and if I am honest before that.

Perhaps that is the point of the WAM programme and its ultimate end goal—its ability to focus society's needs on the needs of one individual, providing a concrete focus on what is applicable. I realise that is about as stereotyped an approach as you can have towards disabilities, again something that I have never associated myself with, but something that I legally do have; disability is, in that sense, about as legalised a social contract and construct as you can get.

This programme may be why I am now getting tested for autism. The link between healthcare and diagnosis is still disputed financially and legally. Through its focus on disability, this programme made me see that a diagnosis on the spectrum can have intrinsic value, beyond being a label. I would not have accepted this or understood disability constructs personally without the program.

While the WAM programme primarily provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities, its main purpose is to promote social mobility and transform social attitudes. By empowering individuals and changing workplace perceptions, WAM functions as both an employment initiative and a catalyst for broader societal change.