Employment Academy

We run a 6-week training course, featuring a series of workshops, helping long-term unemployed neurodivergent people get ready for work.

 


The Employment Academy...


...is a six-week programme, helping long-term unemployed neurodivergent people find work. The programme features a number of workshops, training sessions and one-to-ones to support neurodivergent people who have been out-of-work for over three months.

The aim of the Academy (previously called 'Dyslexia Academy') is that participants are up-skilled enough to go on and succeed in their job search, with confidence in their abilities.




In the Academy, we deliver a series of workshops and one-to-one mentoring over the course of 6 weeks. Each workshop is designed to build both confidence, specialist skills and tools that embed a more positive approach to their neurodivergence and to finding work. You can check out our schedule from last year below:


The academy schedule:

Week 1 - Understanding Neurodiversity (3 hrs)
This workshop is designed to deepen the attendees understanding of their neurodivergence, identify their own strengths, and discuss how to disclose/talk to employers about their neurodivergence.
Week 2 - Speaking Confidently (3 hrs)
Neurodivergents may find it difficult to express themselves and can often suffer from low confidence levels. The aim of this workshop is to build confidence, communication skills and presentation skills through public speaking exercises.
Week 3 - Your Learning Style (2 hrs)
This workshop will equip attendees with an understanding of different learning styles that may suit their neurodivergence, and identify which strategies would help with their own learning style in the workplace.
Week 4 - Finding Inclusive Employers (2 hrs)
The process of searching for jobs as well as finding employers who see neruodiversity as beneficial to their organisation can be difficult. This session will focus on where and how to find inclusive employers.
Week 5 - Create a Video CV (4 hrs)
People with neurodivergence often find creating effective written CVs difficult. This workshop is intended to increase confidence, self-awareness of their strengths and create a product that can be used in addition to a traditional CV.
Week 6 - What's Next? Action Planning Session (2 hrs)
By now, we will have developed and learnt a lot of new skills and techniques. It is important to plan how and where these can be used in the real world to help the sessions have the desire impact, and improve our attendees lives!

What our graduates had to say...


Working through the above sessions helps to build neurodivergent adults’ confidence in applying for jobs, and a better understanding about their neurodiverse strengths. Last year, our Employment Academy hosted 24 neurodiverse people. Check out some of the feedback we received:


Communication

89% of attendees felt they could now have an open conversation about neurodiversity with their manager.

Confidence

94% of attendees left the workshop feeling more confident about their learning difference.

Recommended

90% of attendees said they would recommend the workshop to a friend or colleague.

Understanding

100% of attendees felt their understanding of neurodiversity had improved after the workshop.

Our next Employment Academy will be in 2022, where we will be helping a new group of neurodiverse people to realise their strengths. If you’d be interested in taking part in our Employment Academy, please fill our the ‘Expression of Interest’ form.



Photos from our academy!


Check out some photographs and testimonials from our previous Employment Academies below...