Drive to help autistic talent secure jobs

Scheme hopes to boost rate of those in fulltime work up from present level of 10%

Less than 10 per cent of New Zealanders who have been diagnosed with autism are in fulltime employment — but a new programme hopes to change that.

Altogether Autism has carried out a talent search of almost 100 people to identify who is working, who would like to be and what area they are working in.

The charity’s national manager, Catherine Trezona, said of the responses they had so far 50 per cent of the people were unemployed. Of those who did have work, less than 10 per cent were in fulltime employment while 10 per cent had part-time work and 20 per cent did voluntary work.

She estimated there could be about 80,000 New Zealanders on the autism spectrum who were looking for work.

The figures were in line with international research which found about 2 per cent of the population had an autism diagnosis but only about 20 per cent of those people were in fulltime employment.

Trezona said those with autism often did not interview well because their social communication skills were different and they tended to be overly honest.

Neuro-diverse people would often tell potential employers they were not an expert in the area because they did not know everything about the topic when in fact they were more than qualified to do the job, she said.

With the help of Specialisterne Australia chairman John Craven, who is speaking at the Altogether Autism Conference in Auckland on July 19 and 20, the organisation has been approaching companies about the possibility of employing people on the autism spectrum.

Specialisterne is an organisation set up to help autistic people into jobs and work with them and their employer to get the best results for both.

One of those Trezona and Craven had already met with was Minister for Disability Issues Nicky Wagner, who challenged the pair to compile profiles of 40-60 autistic people who had strengths in areas within the state sector and she would consider whether any were suitable for jobs.

It was not a case of businesses taking on a charity case, Trezona said.

Neuro-diverse people often saw things differently, making them good problem solvers — banks around the world employed them to manage security and detect fraud — and they were usually very task-oriented and passionate about their work which meant they often lifted productivity.