Introduction  

The UK government has recently issued the Buckland Review of Autism Employment, which draws attention to the large employment gap for autistic people. In the general working-age population, eight in ten people are in employment. However, this figure is less than three in ten for autistic people.

One possible reason for the persistence of the autism employment gap is that many autistic people miss out on helpful careers advice in their schools, colleges and universities. Research suggests that the reason for this is that, as in so many areas of life, autistic people ‘fall down the cracks of the system’.

Research from our team at Swansea University and Liverpool John Moores University found that autistic students prefer not to use the university careers service. Often, they feel that the advisers do not know enough about autism and, therefore, how to help them. Instead, they go to their autism support workers, but, by necessity, they focus on helping with day-to-day challenges. They often do not have the time to help their autistic students make plans for what they will do after graduation. 

Providing careers advice for autistic university students 

Advice and resources are needed to help bridge the gap in careers provision for autistic university students.  

Therefore, the research team at Swansea decided to write a guidebook in collaboration with Dr Marcus Hansen of Liverpool John Moores University. This guidebook provides information for university careers advisers on autism and neurodivergent conditions more broadly so that they can better understand their students. 

There are sample autism-friendly worksheets for careers tutors to use. It also contains a resource directory to help careers tutors find further information on the challenges autistic graduates typically experience in finding and keeping jobs, along with advice to help students overcome them. 

In developing the guidebook, we spoke to autistic and neurodivergent students at Swansea University, their support workers and potential employers. These contributions involved a series of focus groups with students at various stages in their courses, from first-year to postgraduate students. We also conducted informal interviews with students if they preferred not to be part of one of the focus groups. We then conducted interviews with all five of the autism support tutors at Swansea University. We interviewed members of the business community both in Swansea and Liverpool. Finally, the guidebook was reviewed by several members of the careers team at Swansea University. 

The completed guidebook includes the following: 

• an introduction to neurodiversity
• career aspirations 
• employability skills and CVs
• preparing for job interviews
• work experience and internships
• disclosure and workplace adjustments
• making neurodiversity part of your reflective practice
• resource directory
• glossary of terms.  

We intend to contact every UK university careers adviser to invite them to adopt and use this free guidebook in their daily practice.

The benefits of addressing the autism employment gap are likely to be very substantial, particularly if careers advisers can help their students find the kind of work where strengths and skills that may be more common in autistic or neurodivergent people can really stand out.  

A neurodiverse workforce, if supported and managed effectively, is likely to be more productive. Recognising the benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace can, therefore, contribute to the country’s prosperity and is a win-win situation.
 

Conclusion

The guidebook does not provide one simple ‘magic trick’ that will ensure autistic graduates find and keep their dream jobs. The situation is much more complex than that. However, the guidebook provides some advice and resources that university careers professionals can build into their professional practice. These resources are intended to be autism-friendly but, more than that, usable for any student, whether they are neurodivergent or neurotypical. 

This focus reflects one of the major lessons we learned from our experience of developing the guide: autistic people do not want to be singled out for different treatment. Instead, they want to be able to engage with a system without falling down its cracks. We can do that by designing the system to work for everyone and applying universal design principles so that our practices and materials are suitable for everyone. 

In short, the careers advice we offer in universities tends to be designed by neurotypicals for neurotypicals. It does not always work well for neurodivergent people. If we design the system for everyone, it will work better for everyone.