Å·ÃÀ¸ßÇå

Practicalities

• Employment: we explored how we could employ students and graduates and got to grips with the University's Supplementary Payment system which allowed us to issue contracts for up to 100 hours.
• Work pattern: we agreed to offer two options: 14 hours a week over 7 weeks OR 20 hours a week over 5 weeks. We wanted to be flexible but agreed it would be helpful to define two options and offer the option to work from home, in the office or a combination of both

We understood the importance of ensuring the participants would be supported and decided to run a small pilot working with a student and a recent graduate that Senior Careers Consultant, Anna Selwood, was supporting. As Anna already had a rapport with them, and some understanding of the support they would require, we felt confident we could give them a positive experience of work. 

• Projects: we identified 5 potential projects, wrote job descriptions and agreed who would supervise them.

Application process

• We kept it simple, asking participants to email the Head of Careers & Employability Service (Katrina Forbes) explaining which project they were interested in and what they hoped to gain from the experience.
• Katrina then arranged an informal chat to confirm the project, start date, and discuss their preferred work pattern. The payment process and next steps were also clearly explained.

The Projects

We identified five projects that were of value to our service and would be achieveable within the timeframe: 

1. Evaluation of the Undergraduate Careers Module  
2. SME Reasonable Adjustments Toolkit 
3. Toolkit for SMEs to improve their confidence in employing international graduates via the Graduate Route visa 
4. Customer Journey Research 
5. Website Development Project  

Participants worked through the with support from Anna.

Initial meeting: Once their work pattern and a start date had been agreed we arranged a meeting to confirm their right to work. We explained that the first shift would be a meeting with their supervisor and an induction which would include practicalities, an introduction to the project and what we hoped to achieve. Training we felt would be helpful before embarking on the project would also be discussed

Project plan: we created a clearly defined project plan with weekly milestones.

Induction: we developed an induction based on our new staff induction.

Weekly meetings were established to review progress and check in on wellbeing. A backup Supervisor covered these meetings during annual leave to ensure support was maintained.

A Teams channel was created specifically for the pilot with a separate channel for each project. This meant the participants could easily communicate with us and each other. 

Final review: we allocated time during the last shift for a final review.

Challenges

• The payment process was initially really complicated (for us and them).
• We had not considered that payment might impact the benefits they were receiving.
• We did not appreciate the amount of time needed to supervise and check work - a lot of time for a small team.
• We did not allow time to implement the recommendations, which was an output of one of the projects. Therefore, we learnt the importance of building this time into future projects

Successes

• We learned how to work within a difficult payment system, which has enabled us to provide further opportunities for students.
• We learned more about supporting students and graduates with autism.
• We also learned how meaningful it was to their family that an opportunity for professional work experience was provided.
• We got a great insight into student /graduate thinking.
• We could see the progress the participants made which was so rewarding.

Next, we decided to extend our search for projects, and supervisors, to other teams. This enabled us to explore the best match for participants with a project that would provide the experience they needed in order to move forwards. We were mindful that it was also a priority to identify a supervisor who would support and challenge them. 

Participants

• Participants continued to be referred to the pilot by Anna which meant she had a good understanding of what they needed from the experience and supervisor.
• This enabled her to be proactive in seeking out a project, and a supervisor, via her network and she felt confident turning down offers that weren’t right for the participant.

Developments

Autism awareness support for supervisor and team

• It was a priority to ensure supervisors and their team felt confident they could support an autistic person and provide a positive workplace experience. 
• We could draw on training materials developed by T
• There is expertise wthin the University through the Centre for Autism Research & Education and links with the MEd/MSc Autism which Anna has in her caseload.
• However we discovered that many colleagues already have experience through hosting Project Search interns:

“In my team, we have hosted Project Search interns for a number of years. Project Search aims to provide autistic young people with work experience. So across the team we already had a range of experience in working with and supporting autistic individuals, so I felt that we did not need any further direct support in this area.”

Formal job descriptions: we began to use Å·ÃÀ¸ßÇå's Further Particulars template. This meant participants would gain practical experience of tailoring a CV and cover letter to a job description.

“I drafted a job description using the University's JD template; I found this a really useful task in ordering my own thoughts and also helping to keep the graduate on track. It also shows that the project is real and valued work, so I would recommend that for every future opportunity that arises via this programme, supervisors are encouraged to draft a role description in advance of the candidate commencing work.” (Feedback from one of the Supervisors)

Openess statement: participants were encouraged, and supported, to write an to share with their potential supervisor. This empowered them to consider what, if any, adjustments they needed and meant the supervisor had an awareness of their autism. In some case they chose to share this with the team, too.

Informal introduction to supervisor: Anna accompanied participants to their first meeting and kept it low key.

Evaluation: we consulted with the Ethics Committee to find out what we need to be aware of when evaluating the project. We introduced an initial questionnaire and end of project reflection for participants and supervisors.

Development of a Disabled Applicants webpage for the University - Access, Equality & Inclusion Team, Disability in Admissions Working Group project:

“This is a position of responsibility that I have never had before, so I’m proud that I was able to create a webpage of the quality that I did. My pride is not only because of the quality of the work that I created but is derived significantly from my own experience as an autistic student and applicant. …It was important to me to create a webpage that made applicants in a similar situation that I was in aware of the services available to support them, both internally and externally, that a declaration would be treated in the strictest confidence and that declaring a disability was crucial for the fulfilment of their studies. …..”

Project to create an online information hub for Research Staff - Organisational & Staff Development Unit:

“I wrote articles quickly and efficiently. I think it went well because I learned the new information about researchers quickly, and worked well with the feedback from other staff.”

Development of a Class Catalogue for Incoming Exchange Students - Recruitment & International Office:

“I was very proud of my ability to go into office and complete work as I had never been in a working environment before this project so it really helped me to feel like my horizons had expanded on what I was capable of doing in a work setting.”

​​Development of a new webpage aimed at providing information for Å·ÃÀ¸ßÇå students who are thinking of leaving the university – Widening Access Team, AEI:

“Everyone else emphasised that the system was difficult to use and needlessly complicated, and I would agree, however I still managed to pick it up fairly well to do the job.” 

Employment:

• One graduate participant secured a 1-year internship with Historic Environment Scotland as an Accessibility and Inclusion Intern through Inclusion Scotland.
• Another graduate participant secured an internship with International Womens Group through Inclusion Scotland.

More particpant feedback:

“I also learned a lot about being in a position of responsibility, producing something that will have a real-world impact on other people. This prompted me to improve my time management, be open to criticism, focus on small details and use initiative, to work with others or go outside of my comfort zone, to ensure that the end product was of the highest quality.” (Participant)

“I learned that I am capable of being in a work space and completing work even when under pressure which was very significant to me as I had never worked before and previously doubted my ability to be in this kind of setting. I gained a lot of confidence in my own abilities due to this experience.” (Participant)

Feedback from a parent:

“The work experience was a great help in her leaving the house and having to be there for a certain time. She can struggle with timekeeping and this was a good test for her to ensure she was on time.  She, as you found is not great with her personal time management ie: taking breaks so this has been a good lesson for her in taking breaks. She found all the staff very helpful and accommodating to her needs, they were very mindful of her and her little ways. I do hope the university does continue with this program as I feel there are many benefits that others would get from working in an office environment. Especially one with a true understanding of young adults with additional support needs.” 

Feedback from supervisors:

“I gained leadership skills that I have found quite useful for my role. I plan to use the leadership skills I learned to help with my career development at Å·ÃÀ¸ßÇå.”

“We were all so thinly stretched with our own jobs and had no capacity to complete this actual project ourselves. Having someone for 100 hours purely to work on this clear task allowed the project to go from conception to implementation. Really great value for money!”

“All of the above he achieved in under 60 working hours. And above all, he has kept me and this entire project on track. Without his presence, I can safely say that work in this area would not have progressed.”

“Her insights on what might be barriers to students considering going on exchange has been so insightful and for someone who is always ‘in it’ and doesn’t understand why anyone would not want to go abroad, it has broadened my understanding of the student population and what we can do to support all students to consider an international experience”. 

Communications

Information about the project has been communicated internally through a number of articles in the staff newsletter, Inside Å·ÃÀ¸ßÇå:

• 19th March, 2024:
• 5th Nov, 2024:
• 24th June, 2025:
• 7th April. 2026:

Knowledge exchange funding

In November 2025, the Careers & Employability Service was awarded funding through the for a knowledge exchange visit to University College Cork (UCC).

Now in its sixth year supports ~65 autistic and disabled students annually to progress from university to the workplace and empowers employers and managers to create disability-inclusive workplaces.  

The visit provided valuable insights that have informed our plans for the next phase of our Inclusive Work Experience Programme.

Collaborate with us

We are committed to securing a future for this programme and would love to hear from you!

We plan to:

• Continue to fund internal paid placements for autistic students with no work experience.
• Introduce external placements with local employers.
• Develop and embed employer mentoring and autism awareness training. 

Contact us

Project Lead: Anna Selwood anna.selwood@strath.ac.uk - contact me if you want to know more about the programme and the experience of participants. If you know a student/graduate who would benefit from participating.

Deputy Head, Careers & Employability Service: Gill Cowan gillian.cowan@strath.ac.uk - contact me if you are an external organisation and interested in collaborating or offering a project.

Head of Careers & Employability Service: Katrina Forbes: katrina.forbes@strath.ac.uk - contact me if you want to discuss the strategic context for this project in more depth.

I am a student/graduate and am interested in participating - how do I apply?

• We have not launched the programme yet. However, please email anna.selwood@strath.ac.uk if you would like to express your interest in participating.

I am a member of staff and have a student in mind who would benefit from this programme.

• We have not launched the programme yet. However, please email anna.selwood@strath.ac.uk for further information.

I am a member of staff and would like to offer a project/get involved.

• Please email anna.selwood@strath.ac.uk and tell us more.

I am an employer/external organisation and am interested in learning more about the programme/collaborating.

• We would love to hear from you! Please email gillian.cowan@strath.ac.uk

I would like to know more about the strategic context of this programme/I would like to find out more about the support you are seeking.

• We welcome your interest. Please email katrina.forbes@strath.ac.uk