BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Special Educational Needs
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1580736
This article is part of the Research TopicEducation to Employment: Toward A Better InclusionView all articles
Teachers' perceptions on the importance of occupational readiness skills for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Japanese Special Education Context
Provisionally accepted
Kazuaki Maebara1*
Asuka Yamaguchi2- 1Akita University, Akita, Japan
- 2Takamatsu University, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
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In recent years, Japan has made significant progress in transitioning people with disabilities to competitive employment. This is because of employment quota systems and the increasing importance of special education schools in supporting the transition of persons with disabilities into society. This study demonstrated the importance of special education teachers’ skills in fostering occupational readiness. An online survey was conducted with 129 teachers from 10 special education schools in rural Japan to assess the importance of the 25 occupational readiness skills. The results showed that the teachers recognized the importance of occupational readiness skills during and after graduation. However, a significant difference was observed in the average importance scores of these skills. The teachers acknowledged the importance of adaptability to specific jobs as a crucial aspect of after-graduate support. These results highlight the difference between the emphasis on vocational education in special needs education in Japan and that perceived by vocational rehabilitation practitioners. Moreover, the survey revealed a strong recognition of the need for support in daily life and health management beyond graduation. This study highlights the importance of teaching specific skills in special education schools in Japan after graduation. Improving the educational content and strengthening collaboration with vocational rehabilitation institutions is necessary to enhance transition support.
Keywords: transition support, Occupational readiness, vocational rehabilitation, Special Education, Japan
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Maebara and Yamaguchi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kazuaki Maebara, Akita University, Akita, Japan
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