KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

The study seeks to examine the availability of vocational training opportunities for people with disabilities and its impacts on their labor market performances, focusing especially on the differential effects of gender. In order to accomplish the research goals, (1) current government programs of vocational training for the disabled have been thoroughly reviewed, (2) public survey data on people with disabilities have also been analysed with a special focus on the differences between men and women, (3) panel data gathered on the disabled from 2008 to 2011 have been analysed to estimate the effects disabled people’s experience of vocational traing have on their labor market performances, (4) both quantitative and qualitative data garnered through a survey and an in-depth interview have been examined to grasp what women with disabilities wants in terms of vocational training services. The study finds that disabled women is less likely to get, but more likely to want to get, vocational trainings than their male counterparts, that vocational training tends to increase the possibility of being employed for both men and women with disabilities, and that these positive effect of vocational training is stronger among disabled women than among men. Finally, the study makes several policy recommendations based on these research findings.