Work Readiness Skills among Students with Mild Mental Retardation

The main purpose of the present study was to determine the percentage of male and female students with mild mental retardation (MR) in exhibiting different levels of work readiness (WR) in Karnataka state. The major result of the study was that the majority of students with mild MR (75%) exhibited independent level of performance in WR. Less than 25% of students with mild MR exhibited dependent level of performance in WR- (a) leading peer group in simple activities under social behaviour skills, (b) numbering, purchasing, financing and timing subskills under functional academics skills, (c) washing cloths and cooking subskills under domestic behaviour skills, (d) understanding and completing a task under occupational skills. In all the skills of WR, more percentage of students with mild MR exhibited independent level of performance compared to female students with mild MR. Where as, female students with mild MR exhibited more independent level of performance compared to male in cooking and washing cloth subskills under domestic behaviour skills. Hence it can be concluded that more percentage of the students with mild MR were able to perform at independent level in WR. Only in certain skills of WR, more percentage of male performed at independent level compared to female students with mild MR. There is a need to identify the reasons for their dependent level of performance in the skills. For their difficulty in certain skills of WR, more training is required to enhance their level of performance.

Keywords – Mental retardation (MR), work readiness (WR)