Advice on job hunting for a young man with autism — Scope | Disability forum
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Advice on job hunting for a young man with autism

CaderMac
CaderMac Community member Posts: 105 Pioneering
edited May 2018 in Work and employment
I have a wonderful young man who has been doing an internship with my small fundraising team at a local charity. In his time with us he has been an asset to the team and really helped us with important jobs including research and data processing. His timekeeping has improved significantly and he has grown hugely in confidence and has become the life and soul of the office! When he first started with us he was a very negative character and often his behaviour could be challenging but he has really learnt a lot about building workplace relationships and being a team player. We are all so proud of him! 

His internship is ending in early July and he is still yet to find employment, despite the fact he has made huge progress on his journey to being 'workplace ready'. This is really frustrating for him and for me, I really want to see him go on to bigger and better things! 

I wondered what words of wisdom the community might have for me on this?! He is well supported in his job hunting but even collectively we aren't having much luck. Can anyone suggest an particular employers/companies who might be best to approach? Can anyone share similar experiences with happy endings?! 

Thanks - Cader 

Comments

  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,671 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @CaderMac
    How great that he has made such progress! Is he getting interviews? Could he need more support in interview skills?
    Scope
    Senior online community officer
  • Mwila_Scope
    Mwila_Scope Scope Posts: 52 Pioneering
    edited May 2018
    Hi @CaderMac
    I hope you are well.
    Great to hear that the young man you are supporting has made great deal of progress and sounds like he is a step closer to finding suitable avenues of employment.

    In order to properly assess where he is in terms of his search for employment and what sort of support he needs i would suggest that you get him to register to the Support to Work service. 

    Scope Support to work provides tailored support and advice to disabled people who are seeking employment. If eligible for the the service, he will be assigned to an experienced employment adviser who will work with him to explore his employability skills, help him identify suitable employers and collaboratively work on ways of approaching these employers,  assess his CV and interview skills to increase his chances as of finding suitable employment as well help identify what sort of barriers he might have-if any, and suggest ways of working around these. 

    If he or yourself would like to find out more about the service you can visit our website HERE alternatively you can give us a call on; 0300 222 5742 or email; supporttowork@scope.org.uk

    we look forward to hearing from you
    Mwila
    Scope Employment Advisor
    Phone: 0300 222 5742
    Email: supporttowork@scope.org.uk
    www.scope.org.uk/supporttowork
  • CaderMac
    CaderMac Community member Posts: 105 Pioneering
    Thank you @mwila_scope - that's really helpful! I will have a chat with him about it and help him register for Support to Work. 

    @Sam_Scope he had one interview arranged for last week, he was very anxious beforehand and when he arrived they had cancelled the interview due to a fire at the site and not informed him! So he was even more agitated than before!!! We have been doing mock interviews with him fairly regularly with various people in the office so that he has a chance to gain some feedback and develop his interview skills. Now we just need to wait for his next opportunity to show off his new found skills! 


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