The target population in this project is patients in SUD treatment who wish to gain employment. The goal of the study is to determine the effectiveness of IPS in helping persons with SUD obtain ordinary employment. A pragmatic, two-arm, parallel, superiority, randomized controlled trial will be conducted. The project is financed through innovation funding from the South Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, the Norwegian Directorate of Health and internal resources from OUS. Participants will be allocated randomly to either an employment specialist whom they will have individual contact with for the coming 13 months or shorter (intervention), or to a self-help and four-sessions work shop intervention (control comparison). The intervention fidelity will be assessed by external evaluators according to the Norwegian translation of the IPS Fidelity Scale. Patients will be recruited to the study over a period of two years, and followed for 18 months my data collection and up until 10 years in national registries.