$5m funding backs data jobs for autistic workers

Neurodivergent workers are finding a good fit for their skills in data processing.

Picture: iStock

One of Australia’s richest philanthropic groups, the $3.5bn Paul Ramsay Foundation, has pledged $5m to back jobs for neurodivergent young adults – including the autistic – employed in highly skilled data and engineering operations.

The funding, for a social enterprise called Australian Spatial Analytics, will be split between a direct grant and impact investment which yields dividends – a blended finance model that the foundation is keen to develop.

ASA is a spatial and data analytics company with a workforce that is 80 per cent neurodivergent – a cohort that often struggles to find work, with an unemployment rate of 34 per cent, and faces challenges when it comes to getting past the interview process.

But for ASA chief executive Geoffrey Smith, neurodivergent workers are “perfect” for the data processing services he provides for ­companies, local councils and government departments.

“We are a strength-based social enterprise and we see the special skills of neurodivergent people, particularly in data processing,” says Smith.

“They are more likely to have better memory retention, better pattern recognition and better concentration.”

There is a perception that such workers are high maintenance for managers but Smith says “we don’t think that’s true”. “If they’re not given explicit instructions – which is easy in data processing – they can struggle and flounder,” he says.

But ASA “leans into” the strengths of autistic workers and is keen to spread the message that they are well-suited to many jobs facing skills shortages. Another issue for neurodivergent people is that they often don’t understand the indirect nature of job interviews and thus fail the selection process, he says.

ASA is headquartered in Brisbane with another office in Melbourne. About 75 per cent of its workers are under 30.

Smith, who is a data analyst and previously ran a disability services operation, set up the social enterprise in March 2020 and says it has already provided career pathways for more than 150 young neurodivergent adults. He estimates that about 10 per cent of those working for ASA in the next few years will move on to other jobs in data processing.

The Paul Ramsay Foundation money will allow ASA to scale up.

“This blended finance partnership is monumental for ASA and the work-integrated social enterprise sector,” he says.

“It shows that with some tailored support, social enterprises like ASA can mature past the grant cycle and create systemic impact over the long term. ASA is proud to be a case study for this innovative ­approach.”

The foundation says that ASA will use the capital to “increase its impact across Australia, facilitating the employment of more than 100 young autistic and neurodivergent adults across five locations and providing alternative career pathways into industries with critical skills shortages”.

The foundation’s head of employment, Josephine Khalil, says impact investing is a key tools alongside traditional grant-making.