Employment and adults with autism spectrum disorders Erasmus Project

Project Title

Employment and adults with autism spectrum disorders

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The INCL’AUTISM project gathered 4 partners from Portugal, Italy and France, with the aim of promoting social inclusion through the work of young adults and adults with Autism Sphere Disorder (ASD).
It is estimated that between 10% and 24% of adults with this condition are employed. These professionals are often employed in so-called protected sectors. The share of occupational integration in the ordinary environment is much lower, even though several experiences have shown that it is of great interest to both individuals and businesses. People with ASD present, even with intellectual deficits, great abilities to integrate into an ordinary work environment, while the lack of understanding of their relational difficulties threatens their ability to integrate.

The major challenge of the INCL’AUTISM project is to inform and train local managers, the reference employees in the company, who, daily, organize the integration of people with specific needs.
Innovative project, since the professional integration of people ASD is still in its infancy, INCL’AUTISM is based on the notion of employee reception within the company, of the on-boarding type, and continues with daily support, a work organization adapted to its specific needs as close as possible to the workplace, ensuring both the integration and the continuation of a career path without interruption.

Innovative project since it proposes to define and recognize and develop the skills of these employee-referents, enriching their curriculum vitae, their employability, and their professional development.
Through the INCL’AUTISM project, we want to train the employees of companies in the communication and adaptation at work of people ASD , and to value the employees referencing the company reception (local managers, co-workers, etc.) through the creation of a repository of transferable skills during professional development.
We will develop in 4 languages, English, Portuguese, Italian and French:
> a MOOC training in two modules, supplemented by teaching tutorials to facilitate its use
> a skills reference guidebook for support staff in businesses for people with specific needs
> a communication kit including a short film

The INCL’AUTISM project is built by bringing together all the actors in its construction: people with disabilities and their families, user associations, business, and training professionals.
To this end, we have brought together 4 European partners with complementary competences:
> on autism with an Italian partner MASSENZIO ETICA E AUTISMO (MEA),
> on business world: with a company club FACE Grand Toulouse, member of the Foundation for Action to Combat Exclusion
> in formation, bringing together 2 complementary partners: in Portugal PREVIFORM, in France the Regional Institute of Health and Social Training of the Red Cross in Occitanie.
By bringing together, alongside training institutions, representatives of the main actors concerned: people with autism-related disorders, associations of families involved for many years in social integration and representatives of companies and the entrepreneurial world sensitive to its social responsibility, INCL’AUTISM gives itself the means to provide an adapted and operational response.

Through the INCL’AUTISM project, all the partners aim to act on exclusion factors, to promote openness to difference, the first step towards further advances in the field of disability.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 248008 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut Régional de Formation sanitaire et sociale Croix-rouge française en Occitanie & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Previform – Laboratório, Formação, Higiene e Segurança do Trabalho, Lda
• FACE Grand Toulouse
• MASSENZIO ETICA E AUTISMO S.R.L. IMPRESA SOCIALE