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How can we provide sustainable employment for ASD individuals?

spadger

Does anyone know of any projects running or due to start that focus on training and sustainable employability for autistic individuals? 

Their seems to be little real government policy regarding supporting and assisting the huge volume of unemployed ASD people into sustainable employment despite most of them wanting to be in employment. 

Considering the strengths ASD individuals can offer to employers given the appropriate support and training, it seems to me that society is missing out on a massive valuable untapped resource.

I think the challenge is to convince employers (and society in general) that many unemployed ASD people who want to work also have a lot to offer.

Once employers realise that ASD employees can potentially make their business more profitable then positive progress will be made.

Before that happens though employers themselves need to be educated to understand how to utilise these skills and create an ASD compatible environment.

Even before that educators / facilitators must provide a framework that allows this to happen.

A Danish organisation, Specialisterne (see below) has developed such a framework and I am currently investigating whether alternatives exist in the UK.

Specialisterne (Specialists), framework model assists ASD people into sustainable, professional, rewarding work (mainly testing software and data entry). http://specialistpeople.com/

In recent years they have also developed a franchise style partnership model and as such have expanded into a number of countries the nearest being Scotland. http://www.specialisternescotland.org/

As of this date I believe that they are the only organisation focusing on ASD employability who are currently operating in the UK but if you know any different would love to hear.

Parents

  • Sorry to hear that you have had such negative experiences in employment Wolfbear. Alot of this negative experience can, as you rightly say be attributed to poor employer (and societies) attitudes that fail to consider what should be important i.e. social responsibility, in favour of greed.

    Whilst these type of experiences do occur to people (I have first hand bad experiences myself), many people also have positive employment experiences.

    Although you make many valid points about social injustice I think we digress from the original focus (assisting unemployed ASD individuals keen to find employment to do so) so I will move on.

    Your opinion about the way to approach ASD employability is very interesting and I am inclined to agree unless further evidence comes to light. As you say the only real alternatives seem to be either an independant ASD environment developed specifically for creating ASD employment or, quote, "a responsive protection" framework applied within an external employment environment.

    You are rightly concerned about the latter and this would have to include strigent safeguards to prevent abuse and exploitation taking place.

    I think it may to useful to consider the pros and cons of both alternatives in more detail so any thoughts anybody?

    Just to conclude, we are all aware there is no quick solution to this problem but progress is being made slowly but surely.

    If the current system isn't fit for purpose we need to try and fix it.

    If ASD individuals keen to have a rewarding career arn't being given the opportunities to do this we have to find a way of creating them.

    Has anybody had any work experience with autism initiatives?

    Any positive or negative work experiences you can share?

    What made it positive and vice versa?

Reply

  • Sorry to hear that you have had such negative experiences in employment Wolfbear. Alot of this negative experience can, as you rightly say be attributed to poor employer (and societies) attitudes that fail to consider what should be important i.e. social responsibility, in favour of greed.

    Whilst these type of experiences do occur to people (I have first hand bad experiences myself), many people also have positive employment experiences.

    Although you make many valid points about social injustice I think we digress from the original focus (assisting unemployed ASD individuals keen to find employment to do so) so I will move on.

    Your opinion about the way to approach ASD employability is very interesting and I am inclined to agree unless further evidence comes to light. As you say the only real alternatives seem to be either an independant ASD environment developed specifically for creating ASD employment or, quote, "a responsive protection" framework applied within an external employment environment.

    You are rightly concerned about the latter and this would have to include strigent safeguards to prevent abuse and exploitation taking place.

    I think it may to useful to consider the pros and cons of both alternatives in more detail so any thoughts anybody?

    Just to conclude, we are all aware there is no quick solution to this problem but progress is being made slowly but surely.

    If the current system isn't fit for purpose we need to try and fix it.

    If ASD individuals keen to have a rewarding career arn't being given the opportunities to do this we have to find a way of creating them.

    Has anybody had any work experience with autism initiatives?

    Any positive or negative work experiences you can share?

    What made it positive and vice versa?

Children
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