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Empowering People, Launching lives

Developing employability

We want all our learners, and those we reach through our services, to have aspirations for employment. Employment in its widest context is supported work, sheltered employment, work placements, volunteering and purposeful positive activity. 

Only 30% of autistic adults are in any kind of paid employment.¹ Furthermore, the national statistic for people with disabilities in employment are only making minor improvements, with just over 53% in employment.² Never has it been more important for us to focus on these outcomes, as we currently face a national and international uncertainty in the shadow of the pandemic.

In 2020, City Bridge Foundation, the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, made a grant of £178,400 to BeyondAutism spread over five years to develop strategies, partnerships, a toolkit, and an employment pathway through our services and beyond into adulthood.

Our employment project includes:

  • working with the senior teams to develop the strategy for employability
  • developing a toolkit of resources to be used within our services and beyond
  • developing vocational assessments, person-centred plans, and referral systems for our students to enter employment and related activities
  • creating training for employers to develop their knowledge – enrol in our free course today
  • building on our current portfolio of work placements to ensure a broad and representative range of vocational opportunities
  • working in partnership with the wider Research and Learning team to develop training resources for employers
  • becoming a wider influence on the perceptions of autistic people and work; changing attitudes with employers, families, and learners about what outcomes and aspirations can look like.

Emily, our Specialist Vocational Advisor joined the charity in May 2020 to lead on this project. If you would like to get in touch about the programme, email Emily here.

Our employability toolkit

We want to see more autistic people with the skills and confidence to enter the work place. As part of this, employers need to feel more confident in supporting autistic people at work. For the individual, our resource contains information about work-related terms, funding and vocational profiles. It also contains a wealth of information on autism, sensory needs and employment support for the employer. Download our free, award-winning, employability toolkit today.

Internship programme

Find out about our internship for autistic individuals and learn how to apply...

Autism and employment - a podcast series

Discussions on employment for autistic people hosted by two of our interns...

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