Autism Association Annual Report 2023

This year, the Autism in Mainstream (AIM) Employment program supported 313 job seekers to secure work across a range of industries and sectors, including government, administration, information technology, banking and finance, healthcare, warehousing, universities, mining, hospitality, retail and many more. A IM Employment is highly regarded as a successful specialist employment program for people with Autism. This year, we continued to increase our partnerships, with new partners such as Indigo, The Perth Mint, Garbi Distributors, Maurice Meade and government departments, as well as increasing our placements with Hospitality Disability Network (HDN). Skills shortages across the state continue to result in more conversations with prospective employers and an increase in opportunities for Autistic individuals. We connected with employers and recruitment teams through a range of platforms, including LinkedIn. We trained and matched individuals with jobs, supported people with on-the-job training and worked with employers to expand new opportunities for job seekers with Autism. We continued to provide training sessions to community businesses, employers and government departments to increase their understanding of Autism, and provide them with the knowledge to better support individuals with Autism in the workplace. This year, we provided training to employers, including Bankwest, Hospitality Disability Network, City of Wanneroo, Rio Tinto, Bizlink and CSIRO. Several employers also attended a virtual training presentation during World Autism Month. Throughout 2022/23, we continued to work with schools and families to provide information on employment pathways and post-school support options. We consolidated our NDIS Employment supports including school leavers and older jobseekers to bring all employment services, including Disability Employment Services (DES), into a unified employment services program. In addition, we continued to establish internship opportunities for Autistic individuals in collaboration with Curtin University’s Autism Academy for Software Quality Assurance (AASQA) program.

Autism Association of Western Australia - Annual Report 2023

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