employability course
FOR AUTISTIC STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
EDMUND LEWIS and KEREN CONEY, Careers Consultants at LSE and Liverpool John Moores University respectively, outline their work as part of a collaborative project to create a free, online course for autistic students and graduates. The recently published AGCAS Disability Task Group annual report, What Happens Next?, unfortunately echoes findings from previous reports regarding autistic graduates, who: experienced the highest unemployment rate of all disability groups – at 16.7%, more than twice the rate for nondisabled graduates (7.7%) and considerably above the average for all disability groups (9.9%) were the least likely of all disability groups to be in full-time work (36.2%) or in any type of employment (66%). These findings highlight the importance of specialist careers advice and information for autistic students and graduates, in addition to careers professionals seeking to support these potentially disadvantaged individuals to realise their potential in the workplace.
CO-CREATING A SOLUTION With all the above in mind, when autism researcher Jonathan Vincent got in touch to invite us to collaborate on the co-creation of a resource to support the employability of autistic students and graduates, we were keen to be involved. Other collaborators involved were two autistic experts by experience and another autism researcher. Over a period of 18 months, we met regularly to consider the most important topics, create the materials and design additional resources to complement and enhance learning related to employability. We decided to host the course on Udemy, where it could be accessed for free by any autistic individuals and those seeking to support them.
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COURSE STRUCTURE The course comprises five main sections: 1. Knowing yourself and your autism; 2. Planning your career path; 3. Sharing your autism with others; 4. Asking for reasonable adjustments and 5. Preparing for interviews. We estimate that someone may take 3-5 hours to complete all sections, but it can be done in part and individuals can take as long as they like to complete it. We are delighted with the responses we have had so far: since the course was launched in May, over 750 people have enrolled on the course and 100% of those responding to requests for feedback strongly agreed that the course provided them with skills or knowledge which will help them find employment. One autistic individual stated about the course: “It was amazing, clear, accessible and just brilliant. Specifically, I really found useful the section on sharing, and also the second on language preferences”.
WHAT DO WE RECOMMEND? We know from our experience as disability specialist careers consultants that many autistic students and graduates may not wish to seek careers support in the form of a one-to-one appointment with a careers practitioner. Some may find that the verbal processing involved with a live careers conversation is challenging and causes anxiety; others prefer to access resources at a time and pace that they can control for themselves. This course provides autistic individuals with this opportunity. Alternatively, for those who do wish to meet with a careers practitioner, this course could be used as a tool to support the individual; specific activities could be selected and worked through together.
EFFECTING CHANGE We are eager to contribute to a change in the year-on-year findings of the What Happens Next? reports regarding the low employment outcomes for autistic graduates. We believe that this course could make a real difference to autistic individuals seeking to progress to employment and succeed in the workplace. We hope that careers services across the UK will add information about this course to their websites and pass information on to autistic students and graduates, so that as many individuals can be helped as possible. We also would welcome your feedback on the course. Access the course on Udemy (you need to create a login in with Udemy first) View an overview of the course on YouTube E.D.Lewis@lse.ac.uk k.a.coney@ljmu.ac.uk @KerenConey Connect with Edmund on LinkedIn Connect with Keren on LinkedIn
