Henrietta Valler-Still, employability lead, Ambitious about Autism, explains the importance of producing autism-specific resources for careers education leaders.
It’s been my privilege to have led the production of our first-ever, autism-specific Careers Education Framework. Our free, easy-to-follow online resources will enable careers leaders and education professionals to provide effective, tailored careers education for autistic young people. It’s part of our mission as a national charity to create opportunities for autistic young people and ensure that they’re empowered to fulfil their potential by making informed choices.
Why do we need autism-specific careers framework?
We know that many autistic young people face isolation and even exclusion from school, meaning they miss out on vital opportunities to progress to further education and employment. With only 29% of autistic people in full- or part-time employment, we are failing to support many autistic young people to realise their career ambitions after they leave school.
This unique resource has been designed to help careers education leaders who work with autistic young people in both mainstream and specialist schools and colleges. It provides resources, including templates, lesson plans and examples from our educational settings to ensure careers leaders have accessible resources that support autistic young people on their journey from education and employment. We know first-hand from our conversations with autistic young people how much they value the opportunity to contribute to wider society while enhancing their own self-worth through employment.
Research shows that 43% of autistic young people say careers advisors don’t understand autism and their needs. Our guides will help to address this by giving careers leaders information and top tips on how to support their autistic young person, with practical lesson plans, guides and examples.
Expert-led and ready-to-use
Our autism-specific framework is based on the Gatsby Benchmarks and was created with support from Maria Marina Foundation and the Careers and Enterprise Company. We engaged with education experts and those representing the rights of disabled and young people to develop a user-friendly interactive framework that provides step-by-step guidance and is ready-to-use.
Two separate versions have been created for mainstream and specialist educational settings covering themes linked to embedding autism employability skills in the curriculum and how to set up work experience opportunities for autistic students.
Our framework is ready for careers education leaders to explore, navigate and implement within their setting. We look forward to hearing feedback on its effectiveness in breaking down those barriers to employment that our autistic young people currently face.
Endorsed by the Centre for Research in Autism and Education
Sam Dexter, PhD researcher at the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), University College London, said:
This excellent framework offers resources and guidance for both specialist and mainstream settings. While many autistic young people attend mainstream schools, specialist schools and colleges also support a significant number of autistic young people.
Compared to their peers in a mainstream setting, autistic young people in special schools will likely experience a different journey as they transition from education to employment. My research with careers leaders in specialist schools has shown there is an urgent need for a set of tools adapted for autistic young people in their settings. “These findings have fed into the development of this framework and helped to make it tailored to, and valuable for, careers leaders in specialist settings.
View the Ambitious About Autism Careers Education Framework.
