Just three in 10 autistic adults are in employment, compared to the average of five in 10 for all disabled people and 8 in 10 for non-disabled people (DWP, 2024).
While the stigma around the abilities of autistic people needs to be overcome, there is also more that can be done to effectively prepare autistic children and young people to begin their careers.
The National Autistic Society tells us that there more than 180,000 autistic students in England. As such, schools have an important role to play in ensuring that their autistic students have the skills and knowledge they need to join the workforce.
At the Cavendish School – a state-maintained special autism school – we know the positive impact a comprehensive framework can have on preparing our students for work. To achieve this, we have designed a distinct careers and personal, social, health, relationships and economic (PHSRE) curriculum that we teach from year 3.
By building career guidance, employer encounters, work experience and school job opportunities into the curriculum from the beginning of our students’ time with us, we know they are ready to pursue employment in a wide range of industries when they leave us.
Here are three ways your school can adapt your career offering to better suit the needs of autistic students and sufficiently prepare them for employment.
Break-down stereotypes
As educators, we must inspire our students, raise their aspirations, and ensure they are aware of the options available to them in a range of career pathways.
Autistic students can struggle with abstract concepts, such as gender roles, and may have a more literal perspective of the world. For this reason, it is important to dismantle gender stereotypes through explicit learning and dedicated lessons. For example, we teach our children that subjects aren’t gendered and to follow interests and strengths in their chosen area.
Overcoming the stereotypical portrayal of autistic people on television programmes, such as The Good Doctor and the Big Bang Theory, also forms part of our career lessons. Explicitly showing a range of real autistic individuals who experience success in the workplace rather than the savants typically portrayed on screen can be hugely helpful in raising students’ aspirations.
Arrange meaningful employer engagement
During my career, I have seen how adapting employer engagement opportunities can enhance students’ aspirations and understanding of the workplace environment.
Implicit learning within the national curriculum and wider school environment, often known as the “hidden curriculum”, poses a challenge for autistic students who struggle to learn life-skills not actively taught in school, such as societal cues, values and beliefs conveyed in a social environment.
Therefore, employer visits can be a useful tool to make learning explicit and help them understand the social aspect of the workplace.
Students’ knowledge of expected workplace behaviour is key to ensuring they understand how to interact with others at work. So, we help our students develop an insight into informal rules such as ironing clothes, personal hygiene and staffroom etiquette.
It is important to emphasise that this is not aimed at changing the child, it is about helping them to understand why these expectations may be placed upon them.
Build students’ confidence and understanding of self advocacy
In addition to learning about different job roles and career pathways, autistic young people need to develop the ability to advocate for their needs in the workplace.
By encouraging students to identify the tools and strategies they need to support their emotional regulation and encouraging them to use these in a safe and accepting environment, they will learn to apply these strategies throughout their lives.
Using the Zones of Regulation to help students understand and develop emotional control will help them to become confident in self-regulating.
This can encourage them to take a movement break to self-regulate or wear headphones to reduce sensory stimuli and can be embedded into your daily teaching to reinforce students’ learning.
In year 11, our students are also taught about disability adjustments at work. Employers are not solely responsible for ensuring their autistic employees' needs are met. So, we as teachers, have an important role to play in ensuring that our students feel confident in recognising their needs, communicating them, and suggesting suitable accommodations.
Final thoughts
Building your students’ independence during their time at school will help them become independent self-advocates, who are prepared for employment and to be fully immersed in their community.
You don’t need to overhaul what you already do in the classroom to prepare your students with the tools, knowledge and experience to break-down barriers to employment so that they can be fully immersed in the workplace. Just adapt it to who is in your classroom.
- Stephanie Smith has more than 10 years’ experience working in and alongside the autism community across mainstream primaries, secondaries and special schools. She is head of school at the Cavendish School, Cambridgeshire’s first state-maintained special autism school. Visit https://thecavendishschool.org.uk/
Further information & resources
- DWP: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment: Report and recommendations, 2024: www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-buckland-review-of-autism-employment-report-and-recommendations/the-buckland-review-of-autism-employment-report-and-recommendations