A Curtin program is helping to prepare tertiary students on the autism spectrum for post-university life by linking them with work experience opportunities.<\/p>\n
The initiative forms part of the Curtin Specialist Mentoring Program<\/a> (CSMP), and has seen CSMP mentees gain work experience opportunities and internships through the Australian Computer Society, Autism Academy of Software Quality Assurance, Bankwest, Cannings Purple, Catholic Education Western Australia, City of Melville, Deloitte Australia, MSP Engineering, Planit Testing and Curtin itself.<\/p>\n Led by coordinators Dr Jasmine McDonald and PhD candidate and psychologist Theresa Kidd, Curtin physics graduate Jacinta Reynolds says the initiative was key to gaining her position as a science communicator at interactive Western Australian science museum Scitech.<\/p>\n \u201cJasmine and Theresa figured out I was really good at communicating, more than the average person on the autism spectrum, so when I told them that I wanted to be a science communicator, they took me to Scitech and set me up with Scitech\u2019s volunteer program,\u201d Reynolds explains.<\/p>\n \u201cEighteen months after I started, Scitech invited volunteers to apply for paid positions. To get the job, you had to give a five-minute verbal presentation on a topic of your choice as if you were speaking to five to seven-year-olds. So I talked about how fridge magnets stick on fridges. Afterwards, the panelists couldn\u2019t get the smiles off their faces, so I knew I\u2019d done well.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin six hours of doing the interview, I got a telephone call saying, \u2018It\u2019s a unanimous decision: you\u2019re hired\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr McDonald says the decision to facilitate work experience opportunities for students on the program lets them prove just how capable they are to potential employers.<\/p>\n \u201cOur students find it difficult performing well in interviews, so if an interview is used as a way to assess their ability to do a job, it\u2019s always going to be difficult for them to find employment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to do the opposite; we\u2019re trying to set up work experience opportunities so they can show employers what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr McDonald is immensely proud of how far the CSMP has come since it was launched in 2014 as one of the first specialist mentoring programs developed by an Australian university to support people with autism.<\/p>\n Since then, the program has increased from 17 undergraduate mentees and nine postgraduate mentors to 56 mentees and 46 mentors across numerous disciplines, and received philanthropic donations from organisations including Autism West Support Inc. and Norton Gold Fields Ltd.<\/p>\n