For years, you have been supporting your child through school, social commitments and life in general. You have comforted them, ensured their needs are met and now…. now they are ready to engage in the world of employment. A scary and very exciting time. So, how can you best support your autistic adult job seeker in finding employment? Skills and Assets When the question of employment and careers come up, work together with your child to identify what skills and assets they bring to the working world. Make a list together of things your child enjoys doing and what attributes they have- are they exceptional at organizing? Have a keen attention to detail? Punctual? Once you have the list, try to link to jobs that excel in those skills. It is important, however, to differentiate what makes them happy- though important- and jobs they should strive to have. For example- a person who likes video games will not necessarily make a great video game designer. Or a person who likes to cook may not be able to handle the hustle of a kitchen atmosphere. When deciding on a career path, although likes and dislikes are important to include, it is also important to look at the overall environment of that career to ensure sensory and workload is sustainable. ‘Soft Skills’ can also be worked on at home. These are skills that are not necessarily worked on at the workplace, such as: having a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, time management, flexibility etc. but are essential to long lasting employment. Often an employee can do the job well but the soft skills are often what causes them to feel uncomfortable in their new job. The more you work on these skills at home, the more success they will find in the workplace. Beyond Skills and Assets Appropriate hygiene is an important place to start with your young adult job seeker. Proper hygiene could be the difference between a successful and non-successful interview. It is even more important on the job! It is essential that the young job seeker understand the importance of hygiene when entering the working world. Another place where parents can support the young job seeker is with transportation. Supporting your child in learning how to take the bus can be the difference between independence and reliance. As they begin their job search and discussions about working life, this could be a good time to approach the idea of more independence- taking the bus, doing their own laundry, teaching them to cook- these life skills will allow them to be self sufficient on their own and will, likely, succeed more at the workplace because they understand the value of hard work and independence. Furthermore, you could examine volunteer opportunities in your community. This will allow them to get some experience and possible references for the future. You could even, together with your child, look into work experience opportunities and community resources. Hand in hand with independence comes ensuring your young adult knows about safety in the community. This is particularly important should they receive a job when the hours are long and late. Skills such as calling for a taxi, asking the police for help, knowing the street names and ways home are crucial for success. A personal account of a parent with an adult son on the spectrum: Preparing our child for employment seemed like it would be the same as preparing him for any new experience in life. We would have to take the lead by guiding him toward employment, always with our ‘ready to educate about autism’ hat on and primed to advocate on behalf of our son so he would have his opportunity. We did not take into account that he is now an adult and needed supports that, as his parents, we could not provide well. Once we were introduced to and accessed those supports for him he was more able to actively participate in job search and successfully found employment. We continue to be his cheering section! Pre-employment Programs and Employment Support Autism Nova Scotia provides both pre-employment programs and employment support for those job seekers who feel they may need a little bit more guidance in terms of what it means to have a job, the unwritten rules, job experience plus much more. Our two main pre-employment programs are as follows- please go to autismns.ca for more information: Launch Pad: Adults with autism often struggle to gain employment after high school. LaunchPad is a comprehensive program that teaches the skills needed to enter the workforce. While we support our participants through real-life work experience and classroom lessons, our Regional Autism Coordinator creates connections with employers to develop jobs. See our blog for more insight into the daily activities of our participants. Classroom Lessons: Lessons take place 3 days per week for approximately 2 hours Work Experience: The Promise of a Pearl is a social enterprise that has gained the reputation for high quality, affordable jewellery made by people with autism, their friends and families. Participants learn how to make products, manage quality control, package retail orders, and be a part of the Promise team. Customer service experience takes place at the Halifax Seaport Market and various craft events. For more information contact: David Paterson at [email protected] EmploymentWorks EmploymentWorks Canada is an employment program for adults with ASD who are out of high school, up to age 29. The program consists of twice weekly sessions comprised of structured, tailored content aimed at employment and social skill building. Participants also get the chance to sample various types of employment through job-shadowing at a minimum of 4 locations throughout HRM. A few key goals of EmploymentWorks are to increase community engagement by promoting benefits for the workplace, expand workplace hiring and accommodation practices, empower individuals to build skills and reach employment goals, and build confidence. Evaluation tools are used to assess the effectiveness of the program and participant goals. Eligibility criteria for EmploymentWorks Canada include:
It often feels, as a parent, that you need to support in all capacities when it comes to your child. The good news is that there is plenty of support for adults on the spectrum. The Employment Supports Coordinator at Autism NS connects individuals to employment agencies to help them further with their job search. Employment Agencies can do a lot to help in a job search. They have free access to computers/printers and everyday they post new jobs that are available around the city. Furthermore, they offer 1:1 case management. This means the job seeker can meet 1:1 with a case manager who will find out what kind of jobs they are looking for, recommend workshops and help to tweak their resume/cover letter when they find a job they would like to apply to. If the job seeker get an interview, the Employment Support Coordinator can also help them with mock interview support and, if they would like, attend the interview as long as they have disclosed to the employer previous to the interview. Furthermore, if the job seeker gets the job and has disclosed, then Autism Works can offer them a job coach to help support them 1:1 in their first few weeks/months of work! The short of it is: the job seeker is not alone! With support at home, support from Autism NS and support from their community, they are on their way to having long lasting, enjoyable employment.
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