The IMAGE project involves partners from 5 European countries and aims to improve the employability prospects of autistic HE graduates. The prevalence of autism is approximately 1% of the population. People with autism are entering HE at an increasing and unprecedented rate. These individuals are academically competent and might achieve better than their peers without autism. Unfortunately, at the end of their studies, this group faces a substantial employment gap: A large group of skillful individuals is left without employment. The reasons are multifold: Careers advice provided by HE institutions is ineffective for autistic students; academic tutors lack understanding of how best to support autistic students develop employability skills or gain work experience; recruitment procedures create barriers; and employers are unsure how to support autistic graduates in the job.. This is despite the many qualities that make them desirable employees: attention to detail, honesty, loyalty, working longer hours and punctuality. European HE systems currently fail this student group, and autistic graduates enter a fast-growing pool of untapped economic potential, preventing personal fulfilment and creating long-term costs to society. The objectives of the IMAGE project are: 1) To create an employability toolkit for autistic students so that they can develop their employability skills and better understand career goals; 2) To develop new training materials for HE careers advisors so that they better support autistic students, and provide training to 400 advisors across the partner countries; 3) To share examples of good support practice with academics, HE senior managers and policy makers and thereby make HE sector more inclusive; 4) To make employers better recognise the strengths and benefits of qualified autistic employees, and reduce disabling barriers to recruitment and employment. The project will use a participatory design methodology, involving the target groups in the conception and design of all outputs. During the co-research and co-design activities, around 50 autistic students, 50 carers advisors, 100 academics and 50 employers will participate. The IMAGE project will produce an employability toolkit that autistic students can use independently, training materials for careers advisors to develop their skills and professional practice, and a set of good practice guides for professionals and employers to raise awareness of autism and become more autism-friendly. It is very likely that project outputs will benefit other disadvantaged student groups too, including students with other disabilities. All outputs will be tested and evaluated during the project, and made freely available to the HE community and employers at the end of the project. The long-term impact will be greater autism awareness amongst professionals, more inclusive HE institutions and procedures, better skilled autistic graduates, and ultimately more autistic graduates in employment.
IMAGE involved partners from 5 European countries and aimed to improve the employability prospects of autistic HE graduates. IMAGE is a natural follow-up to the Erasmus-funded Autism&Uni project: Where Autism&Uni focused on autistic young people’s transition from school into university, IMAGE focused on the transition from university into the world of work. Across Europe, young autistic people enter HE at an increasing and unprecedented rate. They are academically competent and often out-perform their non-autistic peers. Unfortunately, at the end of their studies, this group faces a substantial employment gap: many skilful individuals are left without employment. The reasons are multi-fold: Careers advice can be ineffective; academic tutors lack understanding of how best to support autistic students develop employability skills or gain work experience; recruitment procedures create barriers; and employers are unsure how to support autistic graduates in the workplace. This is despite the many qualities that make them desirable employees: attention to detail, honesty, loyalty, working longer hours and punctuality. European HE institutions currently fail this student group, preventing personal fulfilment and creating long-term costs to society. The objectives of the IMAGE project were therefore: 1) To help autistic students and graduates across Europe develop their employability skills and better plan their career, through the creation of an online employability toolkit. 2) To help HE careers advisors better support autistic students, through the creation of a good practice guide, a training package and by providing training to careers advisors across the partner countries. 3) To make the HE sector more inclusive by sharing examples of good support practice and easily implementable changes, through the creation of a set of good practice guides for academics, HE senior managers and policy makers. 4) To make employers better recognise the strengths and benefits of qualified autistic employees and reduce disabling barriers to recruitment and employment, through the creation of a good practice guide for employers. 5) To actively involve target groups in the achievement of above objectives, using a participatory design approach. In order to achieve these objectives, project partners set out to identify current challenges as well as collate examples of good practice from across Europe. The resulting resources were designed to overcome such challenges, equip autistic graduates with the skills to enter the job market, and change mindsets towards a strength-based view of autism, as opposed to the prevalent deficit view which focuses on impairments - and arguably holds back autistic people from achieving their full potential. Partners worked together closely, using a participatory design approach which deeply involved the target groups in the conception and creation of three intellectual outputs: 1) an interactive employability toolkit for students and graduates (https://toolkit.imageautism.com) 2) four customisable good practice guides for careers advisors, academics, employers and HE managers (https://guides.imageautism.com) 3) hands-on training materials for careers advisors (https://imageautism.com/training) Participants in the various activities included: - 53 careers advisors and autistic students were interviewed regarding the challenges and enablers for entering the workplace. - 224 autistic people and professionals participated in a multi-national survey on attitudes towards autism and examples of good practice. - 70 autistic people and professionals took part in 9 face-to-face participatory design workshops, in 5 countries. - 9 autistic people took part in a series of 20 online participatory design session to shape and refine the employability toolkit. - 192 careers advisors took part in multiplier events in 3 countries, where they were introduced to and trained on the project outputs. - 101 delegates attended the international project conference in November 2021, where all outputs were publicly demonstrated for the first time. - 7,800 website visitors created 18,600 page hits. Outputs were tested and evaluated, then made freely available at the end of the project. Outputs were well received, and the expected impact will be greater autism awareness amongst professionals, more inclusive HE institutions and procedures, better skilled autistic graduates, and ultimately more autistic graduates in employment. Project outputs will benefit other disadvantaged student groups too, including students with other disabilities.