LinkedBlue

The challenge

Despite having their skills and values acknowledged by the general public, more than 80 percent of qualified adults with autism remain either unemployed or underemployed. This statistic is even more significant given that almost 1 percent of the world's population has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Various reasons account for this phenomena. On one hand, ASD job seekers grapple with autism related difficulties, such as eye contact avoidance and using atypical communicative measures, resulting in unsuccessful job interviews and even unsustained employment. On the other hand, potential employers may be interested in hiring this group of people, but lack resources in providing gainful employment for this population group.

The solution

Collaborate with various professional networking platforms such as linkedin and school platforms and provide an extension (such as a button) for employers to indicate interest in hiring job seekers who are on the spectrum. Employers can also indicate specific qualities or assistance they are looking for. For example, if employers will prefer having a job coach for the first few months of probation. When interest has been expressed, a local employment centre will contact the company to provide information regarding autism employment and support that employers had previously indicated. On the other hand, job seekers with autism may also indicate on their profile that they have autism. However, the feature will not be publicly shown, but only to employers who have indicated interest in hiring them. Once there is a potential job match, the employment centre will takeover to streamline the hiring process to ensure job employment and sustainability.