News

Diogo’s Sainsbury’s Work Experience-celebrating World Autism Awareness Week

26th March 2018

At BeyondAutism we are proud of the relationships that we have with our local community. Each of our Sixth Form pupils has a work experience placement once a week where they go to a local business to learn essential work place skills.

Diogo is one of our students who accesses the local community for work experience. For the last six months he has been going to Sainsbury’s in Wandsworth where he has been doing a variety of jobs from stacking shelves to recycling the packaging. At first he needed supervision when loading trolleys with stock and pulling them through the store but by the end of his placement he was doing this independently. He often said hello to customers and worked on how to help them find items.

When asked about what he did at Sainsbury’s and what he enjoyed during his time there Diogo replied ‘I did lots of different jobs… I stacked the shelves, I smashed the boxes.’

The work experience placements give pupils the chance to learn new skills which can then be transferred into their daily lives. Diogo’s mother said of the placement ‘Diogo has very much enjoyed his work placement at Sainsbury’s. Sometimes when we go into a supermarket he will neatly arrange an item on the shelf if he finds it to be out of place. He has also gained confidence and control over navigating the shop floor with a trolley or basket and knows exactly where he can find each item he is looking for.’

It is a great example of how work experience can give our students the opportunity to gain the skills needed for the work place and increase their independence and confidence in the community. We are grateful to Sainsbury’s and our other local partners who are offering these great opportunities for our pupils.

We are always on the lookout for new work experience placements so our pupils have a broader choice of what they can do. If you know of any businesses in the Wandsworth area that you think might be interested in providing work experience please get in touch.