Guide one: experiences in and of the workplace
This theme relates to Gatsby Benchmarks five and six. These state that every pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills valued in the workplace. This can be achieved through a range of enrichment opportunities, including visiting speakers, mentoring and enterprise schemes. The benchmarks also state that every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities and to expand their networks.
Work experience provides a valuable experience that autistic young people truly benefit from. It helps them to refine their career choice and further develop their self-advocacy skills and understanding of workplace rights. Experiences in the workplace can happen in a variety of ways, such as:
- work experience
- employer-led projects
- social enterprise
- community trips and visits.
Not only is work experience vital for effective career education for autistic young people, but the SEND Code of Practice states that short placements and work experience should be part of a range of options that schools and colleges make available.
On this page you will find information on the following:
- Supporting autistic young people into work experience
- Engaging employers
- How job carving can support autistic young people
- Employer-led projects or workshops
- Tracking and monitoring
- Downloadable resources.
Supporting autistic young people into work experience
Personalised work experience is extremely beneficial for autistic young people, particularly if preparation and predictability have been included in your approach.
In preparation for a work experience placement, your curriculum is key.
- What are your young people learning in the classroom that can be transferred into the workplace? In the curriculum section, you can find an Employability and enterprise action plan, which will also help with this approach.
- Are the rest of the staff team and employers aware of your work experience process? Can you deliver a teacher twilight session to share the agreed approach?
At Ambitious about Autism, we have created a work experience package. The package is complemented by regular webinars for employers either actively offering work experience to our students or looking to offer it in the future.
The package can be found below and includes the example resources utilised at Ambitious College.
Download example: the work experience package - an employers guide
Download example: the work experience package - learner logbook
Download example: the work experience package - staff guide
Download example: the work experience package - checklist
Engaging employers
It’s crucial always to think of ways of building relationships with employers. If an employer has offered work experience to a young person, and this has been particularly positive, could this be their next step after leaving your setting? For example, Essex County Council has created an employer guide to setting up accessible apprenticeships. This has become a viable pathway for young people on their supported internship programme.
A one-page profile is an easy tool to do this. If an employer is attending your school/college, ask them to complete a one-page profile and share this with your young people. Then, have a discussion and create pre-planned questions for their visit. If it’s a small group, you may also want to share your young people’s one-page profiles with the employer. Once the activity has taken place, reflect and learn: what went well and what can be improved?
Make sure you know your employers and don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ if you feel as though the content and approach of an activity won’t meet the needs of your autistic young people. By saying ‘yes’, you may be increasing the number of encounters with employers, however, is it going to be an impactful event?
Henrietta Valler-Still, Employability Lead at Ambitious about Autism
Download template: one-page-profile
How job carving can support autistic young people
If a work experience placement is successful, you may want to think of supported employment techniques such as job carving. Job carving is an essential part of supported employment and also a valuable tool for our employment specialists to use when speaking to employers.
We should know and understand autistic young people, through baseline assessments and vocational profiling (we will explain more about vocational profiles in the transition section). This will ensure that when we speak to employers in the sectors of interest, we can begin to think of the job specifics that match the skills of young people.
Employer-led projects or workshops
You are an education expert and, by collaborating with local businesses, you are best supporting autistic young people to thrive in a world that looks very different to education. Invite local employers in to complement your curriculum.
The following guide has designed for you to use when you are engaging employers. It provides top tips on supporting autistic young people and offers ideas as to different types of employer-led projects or workshops.
Download guide: school/college activities led by employers
In your education setting be sure that all staff and stakeholders are using definitions of opportunities in the same way. At Ambitious College, we use the following definitions for all staff in preparing for learning.
Social enterprise
Internal social enterprise opportunities are great to build into your curriculum and can be described as ‘micro enterprise’.
Micro enterprise
An enterprise lesson or activity that includes one to three learners. This activity typically happens within Ambitious College and revolves around learners gaining employability skills. It is often learner led or an activity based on the interests of a learner, e.g. designing Christmas cards.
Macro enterprise
An enterprise activity that includes one or more learners working together, providing opportunities for learners to think and act in enterprising ways. This can take the form of an internal café for learners and staff, or a business created by young people over an academic year as part of an enterprise lesson.
Social enterprise
At Ambitious about Autism, social enterprise means opportunities with a strong social mission, giving our learners real life experiences of being part of a working business and team. The social enterprise is a trading business in which income is reinvested to ensure sustainability.
Internal work experience at Ambitious about Autism
This consists of project-based opportunities set by charity staff or job shadowing opportunities. The internal work experience programme will, where possible, follow the process when applying for real jobs. A job description will be created with tasks and a project to be completed. This will then be shared with Ambitious College staff. Learners will complete a mini application form and attend an interview. All correspondence between internal staff and learners will happen via a designated team’s channel for internal work experience.
In-house work experience programme
In-house work experience consists of opportunities for learners to experience different job roles that are purposeful and completed within Ambitious College. Each job role should have a set of defined tasks that the learner can complete. All job roles should reflect actual job opportunities and can be accessed as part of the ‘introduction to work’ learner journey.
External work experience
This is a time-limited placement that a young person undertakes on an employer’s premises while in full-time study. Block work experience placements are usually three to five days long, and extended placements are usually one to two days per week for a year. Work experience opportunities could include:
- a weekly horticultural placement at an allotment
- 30 minutes’ porter work in the kitchen of a pub
- three consecutive mornings completing admin tasks in an office
- a one-off day completing front-of-house duties at a theatre
- two weeks’ work experience in a warehouse
- two hours a week working in a charity shop.
Tracking and monitoring
The Careers and Enterprise Company has created Compass+, a useful interactive tool to monitor and track your careers programme. However, this is often not compatible with the management information systems of specialist settings.
So, we recommend you use a monitoring spreadsheet to track the amount of work experience or employer engagement your young people have had, as well as other activities, sector preferences and intended destinations.
Download our resources
Example: work experience package (includes employer guide/learner logbook/staff support/employment specialist checklist)
Template: one-page profile
Guide: in school/college activities led by employers
