employment
Autism
program
results
blossoming
La Trobe University has released preliminary
findings of a study into an autism
employment initiative, the DXC Dandelion
Program, which aims to increase employment
opportunities for people with autism.
L
a Trobe’s Olga Tennison Autism
monitoring and automation at
Research Centre (OTARC) Michael Fieldhouse said the research, DHS, the Department of Defence,
analysed the mental health and supported by the Australian Department of Home Affairs and ANZ
Government Department of Human bank across four states in Australia,
Services (DHS) and Department of with access to an autism consultant at
Dissanayake (pictured), said the results Defence, is critical to understanding each work site.
of the first year of the three-year pilot the challenges and enablers to program are very encouraging. ensure successful and sustainable Dandelion Program, Paul had been
employment for people on the autism struggling to find work for over a year.
wellbeing of 35 Dandelion participants.
OTARC Director, Professor Cheryl
“Job retention is at 89 per cent
and job satisfaction is at 75 per cent
overall for the employees surveyed,”
Professor Dissanayake said.
“The benefit of the program is
spectrum.
“We hope this research filters
Prior to participating in the
“I was being under-utilised in
previous jobs and I could never land
into human resource management anything that really challenged me,”
education to improve the he said.
that people are being matched with inclusiveness of workforces and allow jobs that meet their skills and are for other autism at work programs with DHS – something I’m quite good
supported in building meaningful, and employment models to be at. I’ve been able to independently
long-term careers.” developed,” he said. secure an 18-month contract with
The findings also showed the
56
DXC Dandelion Program Executive
Dandelion employees currently
mental health and wellbeing of work in cyber security, data analytics,
Dandelion employees remained stable. software testing and systems
employment
“I now work in software testing
DHS since finishing the Dandelion
Program.”
www.dandelionprogram.com
linkonline.com.au