Guide two: 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 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 workplaces to help their exploration of career opportunities and to expand their networks.
Autistic young people face many barriers to recruitment, so your careers education programme is vital in ensuring that at the very beginning of their journey in career planning they have the tools and understanding of what they need to succeed.
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 careers 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. Experiences in and of the workplace during school and college creates opportunities to combat some of the recruitment barriers that autistic people experience, as demonstrated in the visual above.
On this page you will find information on the following:
- Supporting autistic young people into work experience
- Engaging employers
- Tracking and monitoring
- Download our 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? Skillsbuilder has an employability skills framework that can help ensure every opportunity is a learning one.
- Are the rest of the staff team and employers aware of your work experience process and the benefits? Can you deliver a teacher twilight session to share the agreed approach?
Engaging employers
It’s crucial to always think of ways of building relationships with employers. At Ambitious about Autism, we have created a work experience package - you can find this in guide one. 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.
Employers offering your autistic young people work experience should have all the training possible to ensure that the experience is positive for all involved. Within the work experience planning process, pre-planning and post-evaluation go hand in hand.
Work experience placements may take place with employers whom you have already engaged with or who have already visited your educational setting and delivered a workshop or a project. Again, preparation is key, because employers need to feel equipped with the knowledge and resources to best support a meaningful activity. We have created an employer guide that you can use when working alongside employers to prepare an activity in your setting.
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
The following document may help you to think of your own quality approach to work experience and how to ensure employers and all stakeholders are informed and supported to understand your processes and safeguarding. It is a work experience statement from the Ambitious College and TreeHouse School for employers.
Download example: work experience statement
Employer-led projects or workshops
As an education expert, collaborating with local businesses ensures that you are best supporting autistic young people to thrive in a world that looks very different to that of education. You can do this by inviting 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
We also suggest using a one-page profile. This can be shared prior to any activity and completed by both autistic young people and your visitors. All Ambitious about Autism staff have a one-page profile embedded within their email signatures. This helps us all to understand one another and supports the ask of external stakeholders through our own examples.
Download template: one-page profile
Tracking and monitoring
The Careers and Enterprise Company has created Compass+, a useful interactive tool to monitor and track your careers programme. This is valuable for tracking the amount of work experience or employer engagement and other activities your autistic young people have had, what their sectors of preference are and for tracking their destinations.
Download our resources
Guide: in school/college activities led by employers
Example: work experience statement
Template: one-page profile
