Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi. A friend of mine who is 19 with ASD (I'm sure of it) wants a career in electronics. At high school he completed a GCSE in Design and Technology - Electronic Products. He got (I am told) a grade "A" in practicals and a "C" in electronics theory (I think an overall grade of "B" - or grade 6). But he only got a grade 2 in math and 3 in English (Need grade 4 for a standard pass in GCSEs). He took his math and English GCESs again recently, but won't know until August his results. At school he also did the European Computer Driving License (ECDL), where he got a distinction.
The problem he has got is that his math and English GCSE results are poor and that's why they had him doing gardening in his first year, In his second year he did business and some IT studies. For this coming September, the local college don't want him to continue with IT/ computing, they want him to do retail. His parents have decided he is not going back to college to do retail.
Anyway, at some point he has done some coding in class and pupils have come to him when they got stuck. So, the way forward seems to be for him to focus first on coding. It might be that through coding he will get to grips with electronics. In other words if he first gets to grips with coding that might lead to an understanding of electronics, and is preferable to getting a grip on electronics leading to an understanding of coding. Who knows but in the end my friend might end up focusing on coding.
I just wonder if anyone here has experience of trying to get on in a career in electronics or coding where ASD has been an issue. Especially if it's been difficult to sort out a placement at college. Thanks. Rich
My daughter is on the spectrum, she is not in exactly in similar situation, but also has a spiky profile. She is hopeless with wordy things and natural at coding. Many autistic people struggle with exams, but do well in practical assessments. As others said, try to find a very hands on coding course, the more practical and pure coding the better. You might also conciser enrolling him in Maths functional skills qualification. You need a 4 in Maths really for IT credentials, maybe Functional skills would work better. The are private providers who do fast track coding courses for money, can't remember the name, try to research. You might also put him on Udacity or Coursera and see whether he could pass the coding courses. When my daughter was doing career fairs, IT employers were looking for a portfolio of projects, not for academic grades, so if he could develop decent portfolio from online courses, he might find some suitable apprenticeship where they would take him on regardless of GCSE, based on his coding skills. Is he diagnosed? Does he have support?
He is not diagnosed as having ASD. But I think it's clear he has that. Perhaps he needs officially assessing. It seems to me that he has no real support at the moment . Not sure, but unless he gets into some form of employment soon the powers that be will require him to be on a course of some description or he will come under the classification of NEET.