Development of the progressive employment dual customer modelfor vocational rehabilitation

BACKGROUND: Current trends in vocational rehabilitation value demand-side "dual customer" approaches that serve both businesses and job seekers with disabilities, as well as approaches that use rapid engagement in work-based experiences. OBJECTIVE: This conceptual paper describes the evolution of Progressive Employment (PE) in Vermont and aims to define the key features and critical components of PE as a distinct model of dual customer service delivery. CONCLUSION: The PE approach has promise as an effective dual customer model with high potential for replicability in employment systems, especially for job seekers with little or no successful work experience. Salient elements of the model and replication considerations are discussed.