about us

MESA exists to support people with disabilities into paid employment while providing effective solutions to employers’ staffing needs. MESA is funded through FÁS to deliver the National Supported Employment Programme throughout the counties of Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath.


In 2007, a total of 284 participants with a disability received a service. From this number 75 new jobs were sourced, to add to the jobs already secured.The participants were people with disabilities who were long-term unemployed with little experience of the world of work, this was a very significant achievement.There is an even spread of participants across the main disability categories.

Supported Employment

As a strategy for enabling people with disabilities to access open employment, Supported Employment has been very successful in achieving its objectives.


Supported Employment has a structured process, which involves the following steps:

• Vocational Profiling/Job Matching
• Job Finding
• Job Analysis
• On the job training/coaching
• Follow up.

While the traditional model of Supported Employment was initially developed for people with learning difficulties, the National Programme has demonstrated that the service can
successfully be applied to all disability groups.


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