Abstract
In the career counseling at special schools for the intellectually disabled, the exploration of new areas of work is a relevant present-day task. The reason for this lies in the decreasing employment rate. The aim of this research was therefore to find ways of exploring new areas of work at special schools for the intellectually disabled, and a survey was conducted on the efforts of organized networks and effective use of available systems and programs. The survey was conducted on 250 senior high school department of special schools for the intellectually disabled, and 189 schools (75.6%) sent back their reply. The results are as follows;81.0% of the schools feel the need to explore new areas of work using organized networks, and 48.7% of the schools have such networks. Regarding the support needed by firms on the exploration of new areas of work, many schools gave personal support by job coach.
