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Beyond a job offer: Job coach on helping persons with disabilities build careers

Job coaches do more than just match persons with disabilities to roles. The goal? To ensure their work is meaningful and suits their strengths

Ms Andrea Nandini, a job coach at local charity SPD, works closely with her colleagues to help persons with disabilities prepare for and sustain a meaningful career. PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

Genevieve Chan, Brand Newsroom

PUBLISHED Jun 23, 2025, 04:00 AM

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Six months. Four job fairs. Zero job offers.

“Everyone was walking (into the community centre), and they could just sit and talk to whichever employer they wanted,” recalls Ms Andrea Nandini, 40.

“But nothing was given to my client.”

Ms Nandini’s client, a man in his 20s who is hard of hearing, holds a diploma in multimedia design. She is a job coach at SPD, a local charity that supports persons with disabilities of all ages.

He had been open to any role, she says. Still, the doors stayed shut.

Despite more conversations around inclusive hiring in Singapore, Ms Nandini continues to encounter such challenges.

The Singapore Government has been ramping up efforts to promote inclusive hiring. The goal: To increase the number of employers with special needs employees from more than 7,000 in 2024 to 10,000 in 2030.

For Ms Nandini, who has been working with persons with disabilities for about three years, this target represents both the progress that’s been made – and the road ahead.

As a job coach, she helps persons with disabilities prepare for and sustain a meaningful career. That includes conducting skills assessments and even accompanying them on interviews.

“When companies know that (the person with disabilities) have a job coach – that there’s another organisation that’s helping this client – they are more confident to hire them because they know that they have support,” she explains.

Her efforts are paying off.

In the financial year ending March 2024, Ms Nandini and SPD’s employment support team helped 180 clients secure jobs. SPD trained close to 360 persons with disabilities in employment-related skills, such as identifying and navigating workplace challenges.

The employment support team includes job coaches, occupational therapists, social workers and trainers.

Making spaces inclusive

Preparing clients for job interviews is just one part of Ms Nandini’s work. She is also in charge of negotiating work arrangements with employers, such as adjusting hours or job scopes if needed.

To do so, Ms Nandini collaborates closely with her colleagues at SPD. One of them is occupational therapist Rebecca Tay.

Ms Tay, 38, helps with initial assessments, workplace modifications and adaptations. She also visits worksites to check for physical barriers and provides on-the-job support, sometimes by observing clients at work and recommending tailored interventions if needed.

For clients using wheelchairs or personal mobility aids (PMAs), obstacles like small steps or tight corners can pose challenges, explains Ms Tay.

In the financial year ending March 2024, SPD’s employment support team helped 180 clients secure jobs. The team includes job coaches like Ms Nandini (left), and occupational therapists like Ms Tay. PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

To make work places more accessible, she maps out the journey from the client’s home to their office using public transport, testing it herself to spot any issues.

One client in her 30s, who has muscular dystrophy, relies on a PMA to get around. “She can drive herself around but she can’t use her other hand to push open doors,” Ms Tay says.

The SPD team’s recommendations led the employer to replace push-pull doors with sliding alternatives.

When the same client faced difficulties with typing due to limited upper body strength, Ms Tay identified alternative keyboards and recommended speech-to-text software. The software is available for testing at SPD’s assistive technology centre at Enabling Village in Lengkok Bahru.

If needed, Ms Nandini and Ms Tay also offer disability awareness talks with colleagues before a client starts work. These sessions help co-workers better understand the client’s condition and the support that might be needed.

“People don’t really dare to ask about things like disabilities,” shares Ms Tay. That’s why these conversations matter, Ms Nandini adds.

“Sometimes, employers are very keen to employ persons with disabilities, but the people who are working around them might not understand how to (interact and) work with them,” says Ms Nandini.

“It’s a very tailored and holistic approach,” explains Ms Tay. “It’s not just about job placement, but also addressing accessibility barriers, social integration and workplace accommodations.”

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Helping people grow

Coaching continues even after a job is secured. Ms Nandini conducts regular check-ins with clients for a year, with more frequent visits during the crucial first month.

“The goal is to help them become more independent and confident,” she explains, “so they can speak to their supervisors directly if they face any issues.”

Most of SPD’s 11,300 clients have physical or sensory disabilities, but their experiences vary widely. Some were born with disabilities; others acquired them later in life.

The transition can be more complex for the latter. A lot of them are still adjusting emotionally, Ms Nandini shares. Many are unsure about how to re-enter the workforce.

Sometimes, she arranges one-day job trials to help clients assess workload compatibility and fit. “It helps the client see if the role suits them and allows the employer to observe how the client manages the work,” she says.

Often, the issue is not about capability – but adjusting the job scopes or expectations for a better fit, says Ms Nandini.

If clients want to take on bigger roles than their current skills allow, Ms Nandini works with them to map out a career path, complete with the training they might need at every step.

Ms Nandini is enthusiastic about the collaborative journey. She acknowledges that even when clients open up about their challenges, it can be hard to fully understand their experience even when you try to put yourself in their shoes.

“But if you work together with them, (they will) progress as they gain independence and re-integrate into society.”

The motivation she hears most often when she asks clients why they want to work: “To contribute to their families.”

“They tell me that they want to provide for their families, and ease the burden,” she says.

That stays with her. Even when a placement doesn’t work out – her client, who is hard of hearing, eventually found a job in Australia – the disappointment only drives her to try harder.

“The whole process is important and so fulfilling for me,” says Ms Nandni, “because at the end, they are able to do what they said – provide for their family.”

“I always think to myself: I’m proud to be a job coach (for persons with disabilities).”

Celebrating Social Service Professionals

The Ministry of Social and Family Development has designated 2025 as its Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals, recognising the vital contributions of over 20,000 professionals in the sector who support families and communities.

At the heart of this effort is the Social Service Tribe, a movement led by the National Council of Social Service. It brings together like-minded professionals dedicated to empowering communities and improving lives.

For more information on how you can make a difference, visit https://go.gov.sg/YCProfessionals

Finding a different path

Ms Rebecca Tay once worked in marketing. Ms Andrea Nandini was a laboratory assistant in healthcare.

Both now work in social services – driven by a desire to make a difference.

“Being able to work with clients and journey to their ideal job or being able to return to work and support their family – that gives me a lot of joy,” says Ms Tay.

For her, the shift felt natural. She grew up with a brother with special needs, she explains, so she was very familiar with occupational therapy.

In 2017, she enrolled in Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) Career Conversion Programme for Allied Health Professionals and completed a four-year degree in occupational therapy at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

Her school fees were fully subsidised by WSG, the National Council of Social Service and SPD. She is now serving a four-year bond with SPD.

Her family supported her decision, but they were worried about the potential emotional toll. In social services, you may find yourself affected by the struggles your clients face, she says, no matter your role.

Ms Nandini faced the same concerns.

But she had already found her calling – first when she was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Guidance and Counselling at Northumbria University, then through volunteer work with at-risk youth. It showed her how meaningful small interventions could be.

Both women are careful to balance empathy with objectivity.

“As much as you can empathise, you still need to have that layer of objectivity so you can make a good judgment and provide the best advice for your clients,” says Ms Tay.

Ms Nandini agrees: “Emotional resilience is necessary as working in this field can be challenging. But with the right mindset, it can also be incredibly fulfilling.”

In partnership with the Ministry of Social and Family Development, in support of the Year of Celebrating Social Service Professionals

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