After a break, Aspiedent will be back at the Lovell Autism Hub for a new series of fortnightly employment hub sessions. These will be different from their old sessions and will be broken down into three sections.
Each session will run from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. In total, there will be five sessions, taking them through to the end of this year. The dates for each hub are as follows:
- Tuesday 17th October
- Tuesday 31st October
- Tuesday 14th November
- Tuesday 28th November
- Tuesday 12th December
How they work
The sessions will be split into three separate parts. These will run as follows:
4:30-5:30pm: talk/discussion about a topic (information below)
5:30-6:00pm: drop-in/further discussion
6:00-6:30pm: appointments
At the time of writing, Aspiedent are trying to get a room where they can have appointments during the weeks in between the hub sessions.
The appointments are for one-to-one sessions, where they will:
a) Aim to work out what is holding you back from employment – either obtaining employment or keeping a job
b) Help you make a plan to move forward towards employment
c) Monitor your progress towards employment
Talk and discussions
17th October: Sensory Issues
The aim of this session is to help you identify sensory issues that may affect your ability to work. For example you may struggle to work in an open plan office because of sensory issues. It is vitally important to identify what kind of working environment will suit you before you apply for jobs.
31st October: How do you think?
Autistic adults often think in extreme ways compared to the general population. This can be both a strength and a weakness. This session is about identifying how you think. We will identify both strengths and weaknesses. These are vital to help you identify the kind of job that will suit you best.
14th November: Everyday Life Skills
Life skills such as organising, problem solving, inhibiting impulsive behaviour, planning and carrying out plans are very important skills for everyday life. In this session we will identify deficiencies in these skills and provide ideas as to what can be done to improve them or make the effects less severe. These kinds of skills are very important for keeping a job.
28th November: Communication Issues
In this session we consider the barriers to communication that many autistic adults experience. Just what is all this chit chat about? There are various issues that we have not yet covered that can make it very hard to simply fit in with the rest of the world.
12th December: Discussion about Masking
Many autistic adults put a lot of effort into masking their autism and in fact feel under a lot of pressure in the workplace to do so. But can you get away with putting in less effort to appear non-autistic. What autistic traits are acceptable in the workplace, and which should be avoided? How far can reasonable adjustments take you?
If you want to go and see Aspiedent, either come along in person or contact us to let us know that you’re interested in seeing them. To find out more about what they do, please visit the Aspiedent website.
