Auticon, whose IT consultants are all autistic, hails workplace training milestone

Auticon, a global IT consultancy and social enterprise whose IT consultants are all autistic, has rolled out workplace training in autism awareness to nearly 1,200 people across Scotland.

The organisation said that, thanks to funding from the Scottish Government’s Increasing the Understanding of Autism Programme, it has increased understanding of autism amongst 1,176 employees, spanning the public sector, finance, tech, recruitment and legal industries.

The news comes after Auticon – whose Scottish base is in The Bayes Centre in Edinburgh – recently announced that it was expanding in the Scottish capital.

Read More
Edinburgh launch for autism-focused social enterprise
Auticon now has 18 offices worldwide, debuting its Edinburgh base in 2019, and is 'ambitious' regarding its growth in Scotland (file image). Picture: Kent Smith/Hand Cranked Films Inc.Auticon now has 18 offices worldwide, debuting its Edinburgh base in 2019, and is 'ambitious' regarding its growth in Scotland (file image). Picture: Kent Smith/Hand Cranked Films Inc.
Auticon now has 18 offices worldwide, debuting its Edinburgh base in 2019, and is 'ambitious' regarding its growth in Scotland (file image). Picture: Kent Smith/Hand Cranked Films Inc.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It said it has been helping Scottish organisations to review their existing policies and practices to encourage more applications from autistic people, as well as to create more neurodiverse-friendly work environments.

Maria Hamilton, Auticon’s Scotland-based international training lead, said: “Autistic adults often have strong cognitive abilities, such as logic, pattern-recognition, precision, sustained concentration, and an ability to intuitively spot errors, yet many find it difficult to secure or maintain mainstream employment.”

She added that on the back of the Scottish Government funding, “we have been able to use our many years of experience and understanding of autism in the workplace to help major employers within the Scottish business community to understand the benefits of bringing neurodiverse talent into their teams, as well as setting them on the path to making their workplaces as inclusive as possible, so as to attract neurodivergent talent”.

Edinburgh-based Auticon consultant Chris Lever said that for organisations that are open-minded and make some simple accommodations, “their teams and projects gain from the insights of someone who doesn’t just think outside the box, they don’t even accept the box exists”.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.