There are more opportunities for businesses across the county to receive free training on how best to work with customers and colleagues who are on the autism spectrum.
Worcestershire County Council has partnered with the UK’s leading autism charity, The National Autistic Society (NAS) to provide the free online training.
The training is now available until September 2023.
One business who has benefitted is Onside Advocacy.
Mick Gillick from Onside Advocacy, said: “I undertook the Autism Awareness training, and it transformed my understanding of Autism and how I need to be aware of my responsibilities to change how I communicate with people who have a condition of the Autism Spectrum. Many ONSIDE staff took up the generous opportunity created by Worcestershire County Council and the overwhelming feedback was that the course was very good. Colleagues with no lived experience of Autism were grateful that they were able to get an understanding of the challenges faced by people with Autism and confident they would adjust their expectations when communicating with a person with Autism in the future.”
It is designed to help businesses reach out to a wider range of customers; supporting a more diverse and productive workforce.
Councillor Marc Bayliss, Cabinet Member for Economy, Infrastructure and Skills, said: “We’re really pleased to be working with the National Autistic Society to give our businesses an opportunity to learn more about autism, and how those with the condition can be best supported in the business community. We are keen to make our business community, open and welcoming to all, so that they can go on and thrive. At least one in 100 people are autistic, which means more than 700,000 people in the UK. So, make up a significant part of our national customer network and potential current and future workforce employees. ”
There are 4 free training modules available to organisations in Worcestershire:
- Understanding Autism - this module looks at common difficulties faced by autistic people, how to challenge common stereotypes and provides information on how to makes environments more enabling for autistic people.
- Autism and Communication – this module provides information on how to recognise and respond to the natural communication preferences of autistic people.
- Autism and Sensory Experience – this module describes differences in how people on the autism spectrum process information, discusses the impact of sensory differences on everyday life for autistic people and provides information on how to recognise and respond to sensory needs of people on the autism spectrum.
- Autism in the Workplace - This course is specifically for employers and colleagues of autistic people. It describes difficulties autistic people may experience in the workplace and why. It Provides information on potential causes of anxiety for autistic people in the workplace. It identifies and gives recommendations on implementing reasonable adjustments to support autistic colleagues.
For more information, including how to sign up to the scheme, please visit the WCC Autism pages of the National Autistic Society website.
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