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Industry sponsorship of skilled work experience

longman

The barrier to the workplace is often about social skills - "fitting in" in the workplace. It means that people on the spectrum who have proved themselves academically, either at A level or by getting a degree often find they cannot get work because they cannot conform to the socially based framework of work environments.

Work experience opportunities therefore seem to be mostly of the mundane sort, routine and basic filing, sorting, packaging jobs that don't relect academic achievement.

What is needed is to persuade industry to sponsor people on the spectrum to have work experience opportunities related to aptitudes or special interests where they can excel by doing things which have career applications. These work opportunities would need to be insulated from the usual social skills barriers.

By giving people confidence building opportunities, it not only helps individuals on the spectrum to break through workplace barriers, but it provides an opportunity to demonstrate to industry and companies the potential value of people on the spectrum.

 

It is the sort of programme which might benefit from having a Royal patron to inspire companies to give young people on the spectrum work experience breaks pertinent to their special abilities

Parents

  • I made my July 2011 "proclamation" largely to highlight the problem of workplace socialisation, and have again and again pursued this in other postings.

    I don't have knowledge of actual work experience schemes, being an oldie on the spectrum not a parent, and it wasn't my intention to judge those schemes currently available to young people on the spectrum.

    But what concerns me is that most available placements are at the level of fairly routine office or shop floor tasks that get young people started. I was referring though to young people who had got school leaving qualifications or a degree, for whom such opportunities may not be compatible with expectation.

    There doesn't yet seem to be anything around that tackles work-place socialisation, because that seems to me to be the major pitfall. You can create an artificial environment in some very controlled workplaces, but most expect the person on the spectrum to "fit-in", and people on the spectrum just aren't set up to do well in such situations.

    In this thread, as in  others, I express the hope that someone might further initiatives to find a way around young people on the spectrum having to fit in socially in order to carry out tasks which could be done without "fitting in" as a pre-requisite. I've even written to Government Ministers about it. But the sad thing is, I cannot see anything materialising as yet. This is probably because "fitting in" at work/work-place socialising isn't been seen as a key issue.

    Certainly Sam's Dad, the latter part of your message would be really useful: - do other parents have feedback as to what happened to their sons or daughters in workplace experience or actual jobs, as regards "fitting in" or socialising, and was that a factor in theur being able to succeed or continue in post?

Reply

  • I made my July 2011 "proclamation" largely to highlight the problem of workplace socialisation, and have again and again pursued this in other postings.

    I don't have knowledge of actual work experience schemes, being an oldie on the spectrum not a parent, and it wasn't my intention to judge those schemes currently available to young people on the spectrum.

    But what concerns me is that most available placements are at the level of fairly routine office or shop floor tasks that get young people started. I was referring though to young people who had got school leaving qualifications or a degree, for whom such opportunities may not be compatible with expectation.

    There doesn't yet seem to be anything around that tackles work-place socialisation, because that seems to me to be the major pitfall. You can create an artificial environment in some very controlled workplaces, but most expect the person on the spectrum to "fit-in", and people on the spectrum just aren't set up to do well in such situations.

    In this thread, as in  others, I express the hope that someone might further initiatives to find a way around young people on the spectrum having to fit in socially in order to carry out tasks which could be done without "fitting in" as a pre-requisite. I've even written to Government Ministers about it. But the sad thing is, I cannot see anything materialising as yet. This is probably because "fitting in" at work/work-place socialising isn't been seen as a key issue.

    Certainly Sam's Dad, the latter part of your message would be really useful: - do other parents have feedback as to what happened to their sons or daughters in workplace experience or actual jobs, as regards "fitting in" or socialising, and was that a factor in theur being able to succeed or continue in post?

Children
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