On September 17th, 10 people with autism between the ages of 21 and 30 participated in the first face-to-face session of the pilot training “New bridges for the professional inclusion of people with autism”, delivered by the Portuguese Federation for Autism (FPDA) in Lisbon, Portugal, as part of the Innovative Vocational Education for Autism (IVEA) project, co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme.
The training, that included 10 face-to-face sessions of 5 hours’ duration until the beginning of February 2020, empowers people on the autism spectrum by integrating the transversal competences (so-called soft skills) needed for the future success of people with autism in the labour market. The training was delivered by FPDA partners Isabel Cottinelli Telmo and Teresa Morgado Figueiredo e Silva in their local area.
Throughout February 2019, IVEA partners set three different focus groups in Spain, Hungary and Portugal to identify the soft skills that need to be addressed in the framework of the IVEA training to ensure full inclusion of persons with autism in the labour market.
The IVEA training was well received by participants. All of them had, at least, an internship promoted by the school or by other entities. At the moment, one of them is in a part-time internship.
IVEA partners foresee a minimum of 6 pilot courses running until June 2020 – 3 courses for employers working with people with autism, and 3 courses for people with autism themselves in Portugal, Spain, and Hungary, respectively.
The IVEA training for employers called “New dynamics for the professional inclusion of people with autism” will be delivered in Portugal from the 16th October 2019, and until January 2020. The course includes 40 hours of e-learning, and 10 hours of face-to-face sessions.
These training sessions for people on the autism spectrum and companies will be reinforced with an internship experience in those companies from 3 to 6 months, until June 2020.
