Pathways for Businesses:

Helping Virginia Employers Meet Their Workforce Needs

Looking for qualified job candidates? Pathways to Careers can help.

Pathways to Careers connects Virginians with disabilities to education, training and industry-recognized credentials to secure good, high-demand jobs in high-growth industry sectors. DARS manages the program through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, in close partnership with the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.

What Does Pathways Offer Employers?

Pathways can help you source and advance qualified job candidates, meet your business goals and build a more inclusive workforce—for today and tomorrow. Across Virginia, our Business Services team is working with motivated candidates with disabilities, many of whom could be a perfect fit for your business, work-based training program or apprenticeship.

At little or no cost, businesses working with DARS and Pathways can benefit from the following:

Staffing and recruitment services
Consultation on workplace accommodations and assistive technology
Disability awareness training for your staff (including the acclaimed Windmills training)
Guidance on financial incentives, including the Work Opportunity Tax Credit
Strategies for retaining employees with disabilities
Opportunities to host trainings and paid or unpaid work experiences
Access to a Quick Response Counselor to ensure employees are successful on the job

Why Recruit People with Disabilities?

A strong workforce is an inclusive workforce, one that benefits from varied perspectives on how to confront challenges and get the job done. By nature of their everyday experiences, people with disabilities do just that. Through innovative thinking, they can help businesses gain a competitive edge and insight into an important customer base. What's more, people with disabilities can assist businesses in ensuring their workforce reflects all potential customers.

How Does Pathways' Quick Response Counseling Work?

A signature feature of Pathways is our Quick Response Counselor, who helps employers retain and advance valued existing workers with disabilities. If you have a new or existing employee with a disability who needs workplace accommodations or other tools to succeed on the job, she can provide swift, problem-solving assistance to managers and workers alike. Drawing from her years of experience, she'll help you and your employees with disabilities discover tools and strategies to keep them working—and thriving on the job.

Contact Pathways

If you're a manager, human resources professional or someone else with hiring responsibilities, Pathways can help you source, retain and advance qualified talent—and build a more inclusive workforce in the process. Contact the Pathways team to learn more.

If you're the sponsor of a Registered Apprenticeship, contact us to learn about our partnership with the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.