The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act emphasizes the importance of working with and providing services to businesses. Most vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselors are expected to work with businesses as part of their jobs, yet many counselors are not comfortable with this activity and do very little business development. Many counselors have told us that not only are they uncomfortable with business development, they also do not have the knowledge or skills needed to be successful at business development. This course was created to address these problems and improve counselors’ knowledge and skills related to engaging with employers. Business development is more of an art than a science, but some specific methods can be used to provide structure to this activity and help people learn how to be successful at it.

The course consists of 26 modules broken into five major sections, plus a resources section. You may complete only the modules you are interested in, but continuing education credits (CRC) are available based on the completion of an entire section, rather than by module. Up to 17.25 CRC credits are available if you complete the entire course (including 11 credits for passing quizzes and 6.25 for enrichment activities).

Please note that this course is only available for CRC credit.

Course Objectives:

1. Identify barriers experienced to engaging with businesses.
2. Obtain tools and resources for business development.
3. Increase knowledge and skills to engage with businesses.
4. Use their counseling skills to facilitate relationship building with employers.
5. Play to their strengths when engaging with businesses.

The following are recommended screen reader and browser combinations.

Mac: Voiceover with the latest version of Safari,

PC: JAWS or NVDA with Firefox

Note that currently, course quizzes are not functioning properly for Microsoft screen reader users with Chrome or Edge.

The course shows a start date, but this is simply the date the course was made available to the public. They are self-paced. So, there is not an end date. You can enroll at any time.

This course was developed by the National Research & Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC) at Mississippi State University. We are the only national center funded to conduct research related to employment for people with blindness or low vision, and training and technical assistance for the federal Older Individuals who are Blind program. As a national center of excellence, we offer resources on a variety of topics for service providers, businesses, and persons with vision loss on our websites:

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