The Gap project

The Gap Project is a transition project for intellectually impaired adults who have graduated from the Adult Integration Program and are waiting to be successfully placed into permanent employment.

A noticeable “gap” exists between the time when students graduate from the life skills training program and the time they are successfully placed into permanent employment. During this time students are returning to their homes where many of their valuable skills are lost and they are not meaningfully occupied. To place these members into a suitable job can take months and this wait causes a detrimental delay in their progress. The aim of the Gap Project is to create a temporary working environment to fill this time.

The Gap provides graduates with an opportunity to work in the open labour market on short-term contracts and ensures they are meaningfully occupied while The Living Link assists to source permanent jobs for them. The project offers the following:

• An environment where graduates can refine their work skills and repeatedly put those skills into practice
• An opportunity for graduates to grow their work experience which makes them more marketable to an employer
• Open labour market practices, policies and procedures are implemented which further assists in preparing graduates for permanent placement
• Graduates and Gap site staff are supported by a Job Coach from The Living Link
• Students will earn a minimal stipend for contracts completed.
• Members will leave the project once The Living Link has sourced permanent employment for them.

JCE Wits currently provides The Living Link with a site for The Gap Project and graduates work in various departments at the campus.

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