WORK-AUT

Leveraging WBL to foster professional inclusion of people affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder

“Work-Aut: Leveraging WBL to foster professional inclusion of people affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder” is a project funded the European Union in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme.

The project’s outputs and activities have been informed by the overriding objective of developing a more open and inclusive labour market and fostering participation of people affected by ASD through the development of new competences for professionals of the recruiting and employment processes. Autistic people, because of the shortcomings they may display in social interaction and other fields, they are often considered ‘inadequate’ for regular employment and are therefore reduced to further social exclusion.

Furthermore, the project wants to respond also to one of the priority areas of the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 aiming at raising the employment rate of persons with disabilities working in the open labour market.

6 partner organization from 5 European countries are working to achieve the project main objectives:

– Raise awareness of companies, labour market institutions, employment offices, on the need of adapt recruiting systems to facilitate the professional inclusion of our target group.

– Empower employment officers, job counsellors and HR managers to better understand how to improve their governance structures, competences and institutional culture in reference to professional inclusion of people with ASD.

– Bridge the gap between the target group and the labour market institutions and subjects, helping them better engage with each other.

– Provide a freely accessible, permanent set of resources and tools for the continuous development of employment institutions, companies, HR managers through the development of new competences and skills.

The project foresees 3 main results:

– Inclusion Champion Profile;

– Work-Based learning pathways;

– Training Courses.

The envisaged impact for the first main target group – employment officers, job counsellors and HR managers, is that they will be able to improve the quality and widen the scope of the services they offer and thus improve their skills and raise their awareness.

The impact for the second target group – the young adults affected by ASD, will be their better employability.

The connection between the two target groups will also be guaranteed by the creation of the European Pool for inclusion – a platform connecting job seekers, companies, career practitioners.

To guarantee a wide dissemination of project results, products, outputs and learning materials are freely accessible.

For more information, please contact career@ciape.it