At a Glance
Location: Poland
Impact Areas: Labor Inclusion, Sustainable Income
People Supported:
People with Disabilities
Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2021
Overview
Founded in 2015, asperIT Foundation empowers people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to access quality jobs in IT by providing them with technical education, psychological support, and soft-skills training. At the same time, the enterprise offers corporate training services to help companies hire and support employees with diverse neurocognitive functions.
In Poland, only 1% of people with ASD are employed. Autism is a developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others. Neurocognitive variations, just as variations in size and skin color, are an essential part of humanity. These differences equip each person with a unique set of skills that have distinct professional applications. However, this diversity of mental functioning is not reflected in the labor force - people with varied neurocognitive abilities, including people who have dyslexia, ADHD, or ASD, face hiring discrmination and lack adequate support at work.
By providing tech and soft-skill training to aspiring professionals with ASD, the social enterprise is able to expand career paths for them while providing corporations with a neurodiverse talent pool. To date, asperIT has trained 80 people and has supported many of its students to find their first jobs in sustainable and high-growth industries such as tech. Most recently, the Foundation launched its own software testing company, asperIT.com and 10% of asperIT Foundation’s program graduates secured quality employment directly from the company.
Results & Impact
260+
people with ASD trained by 2024
100+%
increase in monthly earnings for program graduates
40%
women program participants placed into quality jobs by 2024
“I wanted to provide people on the autism spectrum with a stable future and development opportunities and offer assurance to their families. I wanted to combine it [asperIT] with something not typical for foundations to do. I wanted to see long-term, real results. ”
NESsT Investment
In recent years, a growing number of global corporations have committed to fostering neurodiversity in the workplace , recognizing its advantages in many areas, including productivity, innovation, and organizational culture. NESsT’s investment will support asperIT to refine its sales and marketing strategies and improve its operational tools to reach more corporate clients in the tech industry. NESsT will also help the social enterprise to enhance its impact measurement tools to better communicate and promote its mission of improving education and career opportunities for people on the autism spectrum.
