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We had the pleasure of providing work experience to a young lady, Gemma, who joined us for two “work taster” days which were organised by Work Solutions – an organisation that supports motivated people with mental ill health, learning disabilities, Aspergers, physical disabilities and sensory needs who often find it difficult to get and keep a job.
We first became aware of Work Solutions at a Connect Dacorum networking event and were immediately impressed with what they had to offer and the support they provided to people who traditionally have found it hard to find meaningful employment. Coinciding with our own desire to be more involved with the local community and to help disadvantaged people in the area we had an enlightening conversation afterwards with one of Work Solutions’ members of staff where we discussed the skills people with Aspergers could bring to an IT environment.
Gemma, who has Aspergers, has so far spent two days with us during which we gave her a variety of areas to gain some exposure to, including technical documentation, checking data backups, updating our core database and auditing part of our remote access solution. We are in the process of arranging another couple of days, such was the positive experience of the first two. The team have all been impressed with Gemma’s dedication, attention to detail and warm disposition and her presence here has certainly dispelled a few pre-conceptions of life with Aspergers.
“I just wanted to thank you and the team for making Gemma welcome on her two days she has done with Lumina, she commented how everyone made her feel welcome and how she was made to feel at ease very quickly. Gemma was very positive and happy on the way home so I thought I would pass it on.
I look forward to hearing from you for some further days in September.”