By Jinaka Ugochukwu
Autistic people are still far less likely to be in work than almost any other group. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that only 21.7% of autistic disabled people in the UK were in employment in 2020, compared with 53.6% of disabled people overall. Closing that gap starts with employers, but families can make a real difference too.
It can be especially daunting if you’re a parent and your child is leaving education and thinking about their next steps, including finding a job and becoming an adult.
The following tips are useful to consider if you are a parent or carer of an autistic young person who is starting to look for a job.
1. Help them explore their interests and skills
There are many ways to think about interests and skills, but the next three activities may give you some inspiration.
Activity 1: map a typical day
Ask the person you are supporting about a typical day (or they can write it down). Note down the activities they do. Then rate each activity on a scale from 1 to 3: 1 for “I love doing it”, 2 for “I don’t mind doing it” and 3 for “I really dislike it”.
This can help someone identify what they would like to do more or less of, and what activities they might enjoy in an ideal job.
Activity 2: find the skills
Starting with the activities rated 1, use sticky notes to list the skills involved in each one. A general list of skills from a careers website may help you think about activities from a skills-based point of view.
Activity 3: match skills to jobs
Use the list of skills to think of jobs that need at least one of them. The more skills from the list a job uses, the better.
2. Explore their strengths and what they find harder
Ask the person you are supporting to answer these questions:
- What am I good at?
- What have others complimented me on?
- Which projects and tasks use up my energy?
- What have others had to help me with more than once?
- What can I spend hours doing without feeling tired or bored?
- When I have free time, what do I like to do, and why?
These answers, together with the activities above, start to paint a picture of jobs that might suit them.
3. Discuss independent or supported employment
Would they like to work independently, or would supported employment suit them better? If they need support in the workplace, the UK government’s Access to Work scheme may help. It provides grants for things like specialist equipment, assistive software and support workers.
4. Explore autism-friendly organisations together
In theory, every organisation should be an autism-friendly workplace, but the reality is sometimes different. There are a few ways to find employers that can really support your child.
Firstly, the government’s Disability Confident scheme recognises employers that have committed to recruiting and supporting disabled people. Secondly, a growing number of employers run dedicated neurodiversity hiring programmes, so it is worth checking the careers pages of organisations your child is interested in. Jobs advertised on the Enna jobs board come from employers who are actively working on neuroinclusion.
5. Set a good example and share your work experiences
If you are employed, it can be really helpful to share your experiences, including what you do day to day and the unwritten rituals of work. Examples include making small talk in the mornings, contributing to collections, signing birthday cards and getting used to office life in general.
6. Offer guidance on CVs and cover letters
Many jobs still ask for an application form or a CV, and writing either can feel hard for every job-seeker, autistic or not. Our CV help page and these CV writing tips for neurodivergent job-seekers will put you in a good position to support them with this task.
7. Offer help with application forms
The key to a successful application form is showing that you can do the things the job needs. Bear this in mind when someone asks you for help. The STAR framework is a popular way to think about experiences and show those skills. It works for applications, cover letters and interviews.
- Situation: where, when and with whom?
- Task: what did you hope to achieve?
- Action: what did you do?
- Result: what did you achieve, and what skills did you develop?
For example:
“While I typically like to plan my work in stages and complete it piece by piece, I can also produce high-quality work under tight deadlines. In a previous role, a colleague left days before one of his tasks was due. I was asked to take it on, with only a few days to learn about it and complete it. I asked other people to help and shared out tasks, so we finished with a day to spare.”
8. Practise with mock interviews
Great, your child has a job interview! This is fantastic news, but it can feel daunting. One way to prepare is through role play. Use the job description to prepare likely interview questions, such as:
- Why do you want this role?
- Give me an example of a time when you worked well in a team.
- What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses?
Wearing interview clothes can make it feel more realistic, and you could ask someone you know to play the employer. Our guide to answering the strengths and weaknesses question is a useful starting point.
9. Brush up on the law
If the person you’re helping would benefit from reasonable adjustments so they can perform at their best in interviews and in the job, the law can help.
Nobody has to tell an employer they are autistic, but doing so can help in three key ways:
- Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process and in the job.
- With the right adjustments in place, people are more likely to succeed at work and may find it less stressful.
- If colleagues know someone is autistic, they are likely to be more understanding, which can help build better relationships.
Our article on whether to disclose autism in a job interview looks at the pros and cons in more detail.
10. Work on a safety plan together
We really hope everything goes well at work, but keep this final tip in mind just in case. Help them write a plan they can follow if a situation isn’t going well. These questions can help:
- How will you know that all isn’t well?
- Who will you tell?
- How would you want them to help you?
Most people find looking for work artificial and stressful. We hope these tips help you make it a more comfortable process for your child.
How Enna can help your child find work
Start with the Enna jobs board, where employers committed to neuroinclusion advertise their roles, and sign up for job alerts so new vacancies arrive by email. If your child is working on their CV, our CV guidance walks through each section step by step.
If your child’s employer wants to get the right support in place from day one, point them to our workplace needs assessments.
