Helping autistic young people build digital confidence
Our training courses are designed to empower parents, professionals and organisations with greater autism understanding and confidence. We work alongside autistic young people to ensure the knowledge we impart is informed by their lived experiences.
We enjoy working in partnership with other organisations to help autistic young people develop skills and knowledge to thrive in their careers. This is really important because sadly only a third of autistic people are in full or part-time employment.
We recently worked with the charity Catch22 to help them tailor a training course for autistic young people aged 18-24 who were not in education, employment or training (also known by the acronym NEET).
Catch22 is a charity that designs and delivers services that build resilience and aspiration in people and communities. It runs digital skills programmes to provide opportunities for people from excluded groups to get working in digital or tech enabled roles. With our help, the charity recruited a group of autistic young people to take part in its Digital Skills Academy course.
We worked closely with Catch22 to prepare for the course, providing training to the project’s skills coaches and facilitators to enhance autism confidence, while reviewing and advising on the course content to ensure that delivery was fully accessible for an autistic audience. We also worked together on the recruitment and onboarding of participants and used our Ambitious Youth Network to promote this exciting opportunity to over 1,000 autistic young people.
The Digital Skills Academy team delivered their adapted training programme over a three-week period, focusing on building digital and AI skills. This included the opportunity for autistic young people to engage in team projects and develop their ability to deliver presentations, as well as other soft skills throughout the bespoke facilitation. Of the enrolments, 15 autistic young people completed the course, which outperformed even the highest of expectations of the Catch22 team – who would usually expect to see a completed percentage closer to 80%.
Following the course, all participants now have access to six months of ongoing support delivered by Catch22, aimed at building career readiness, encouraging re-engagement with education, and developing vital AI and digital skills needed for success in the future world of work across all industries.
One of the course participants, Daniel*, said:
I couldn’t have seen myself doing anything like this [presenting] even just a few months ago. It’s really helped my confidence!
Christina Hicks, Director of Employability, Catch22, added:
Partnering with Ambitious about Autism to deliver the Digital Skills Academy has been a powerful step forward in our mission to create inclusive pathways that support young people in re-engaging with education, building digital confidence, and developing future-ready skills for all aspects of life and work. The enthusiasm, resilience, and growth shown by the young people on the programme has been truly inspiring. The training provided by Ambitious about Autism to our team was instrumental in building our confidence and capability to deliver a programme that was both accessible and impactful. This collaboration demonstrates what’s possible when we combine expertise and compassion to remove barriers and unlock potential.
Ambitious about Autism and Catch22 are united in delivering inclusive programmes that improve outcomes for the communities they serve. This collaboration is an excellent example of partnering and using our knowledge, expertise, and passion to create opportunities for autistic young people.
About the author
Emma Alix is Head of Employability, Skills and Training at Ambitious about Autism.
