TransitAction 2022 Updates

TransitAction 2022 Updates

The main aim of the TransitAction Project is to support young autistic people to smoothly transition between school or inactivity to employment, as this period represents an extremely difficult and problematic phase for them. The project aimed to address the main challenges by developing online training and support networks for everyone involved in this critical transition phase, including, young autistic people themselves, Transition Coaches, companies and employers, family members, community groups, volunteer organisations and other stakeholders. The project started in 2021 and closed end of 2022, with the following outputs successfully completed:

• Research on good practices supporting the transition of young autistic people from school to employment;
• Research on digital tools supporting the transition of young autistic people from school to employment;
• An online training course for Transition Coaches translated into the national language of the project partners;
• Four pilots implemented at national level to test the effectiveness of the training content;
• Delivery of a training course to Transition Coaches and Peers through mutual learning with collation of feedback for quality assurance and;
• Continuous updates and improvements to the online Platform, Transitaction.eu (developed in 2021) showcasing information on autism, good practices and digital tools and, hosting the online training modules;

The five training modules are focused on relaxation and stress management, autism awareness, tips for clear communication, autism at work and autistic burnout prevention. A fifth module was created targeting companies and potential employers on neurodiversity and success stories of companies recruiting autistic people and the benefits to them and the autistic person. The E-learning modules are now available on the online Platform.

In 2022, each project partner organized national dissemination events attracting key stakeholders in their respective countries (Greece, Slovenia, Ireland, Italy) and a final dissemination European event was organized and hosted by EPR in partnership with GTB and AUTIMATIC (Belgium). The aim was to  showcase the project’s results to relevant stakeholders including, transition Coaches, peers, YAAs, companies, co-workers, families in their role in the transition of young autistic people from education or inactivity to Employment. The project results and key messages were disseminated through EPR’s communication and social media campaign to several target audiences at EU level – to listen, learn and apply its lessons further on. Future collaboration has already been explored with the Commission’s DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, some MEPs in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the EU Intergroup for Disability. 

These are some of the excellent remarks that the project received from the Flemish Erasmus + Agency:

The final report and the addenda give a good idea of the quality, the outputs and the implementation of this project. The project team had already worked together in other projects and they provided a genuine contribution to the project, each from their own expertise and experience. All partners, and also the stakeholders, were very dedicated towards the project and the outcomes of it. The website is very clear and straightforward, so the users will easily find what they are looking for. The lay-out is attractive and the content is very accessible.

The outcomes of this project have the aim to reduce the risk of becoming unemployed and help them to lead full lives in their communities. Through the project and in the description of the interim and final report it is clear that the Transition Coaches improved their competences and the partners discovered and integrated new methodologies and tools in their organizations