Teaching Pre-Employment Skills from Age 14 to Young Adulthood
Based on the?Autism Works Now!® Workplace Readiness Workshop, this interactive and updated resource helps individuals with autism from age 14 to adulthood develop the necessary transition skills for getting and keeping a meaningful job, with accompanying downloadable worksheets and templates.
Structured around 2-hour weekly sessions over an eight-month period, the program is ideal for teaching to groups of autistic students. It covers essential topics such as organization and time management, interview skills, appropriate workplace attire, and networking, and provides an updated corpus of information and career resources from the California Department of Education. This second edition now includes vital additions such as online career resources, mock interviews, guidance on personal and professional references, small talk, telephone etiquette, and social media, as well as worksheets and questionnaires to help track progress and explore which jobs would best suit an individual based on their skills and interests.
Susan Osborne (Author)
Susan Osborne was the Director of Workplace Readiness at Autism Works Now where she created the curriculum and facilitated weekly classes for the original Workplace Readiness Workshop. She is the founder of Spectrum Help Coaching Services which focuses on post high school transition planning for young adults on the autism spectrum. She is the former programme director of a residential and academic support program where she facilitated career training and job placements and executive functioning support for young adults with autism. She is the mother of an adult son on the autism spectrum who graduated with a public high school diploma.
Joanne Lara (Author)
Joanne Lara, MA was a professional dancer before becoming a classroom education specialist and university professor. She was the founder of the nonprofit organization Autism Movement Therapy®, based in Los Angeles, California, which certifies, trains, and licenses dancers, educators, parents, and professional service providers in AMT. Joanne was a Core Adjunct Professor at National University in LA, California and taught weekly Autism Movement Therapy classes in Van Nuys, CA, where she had a private ABA behavioral consultation practice. She produced the documentary Generation A: Portraits of Autism and the ARTS, was the executive producer of the LA musical event Temple Grandin & Friends: Autism Works Now and was a columnist for Autism Asperger's Digest and Sensory World.