<< Objectives >>The objectives of this proposal are:- To take the gaps identified among the professionals and map current good practices related to interventions for autism.-To deliver training courses to directly train the ASD professionals, in evidence-based approaches they can incorporate into their work.-to create a network of ASD professionals, who can exchange good practices, at European level- the professional development of the ASD professionals<< Implementation >>We plan to deliver 3 mobilities (trainings) with a focus on:1. Social skills, 2. Functional Communication and 3. Communicating and collaborating with parentsAdditionally, during the project lifetime, 2 TPMs are going to take place, along with several online meetings, to improve the management of the project. Finally, communication and dissemination activities are going to be implemented throughout and after the duration of the project.<< Results >>As a result, we expect:-an increase in autism awareness among the professionals, partner organisations and their local community-to guide best practice in supporting ASD individuals -professionals to make positive changes in their practice-the development of a continuing vocational training program for ASD professionals-closing existing gaps in the access to training for professionals working with ASD-enhancing the communication and collaboration between ASD professionals and ASD families

Participation in ECEC is considered a crucial factor for socialising children into formal education, and according to the final report “ECEC for children from disadvantaged backgrounds”, commissioned by the European Commission in 2012, ECEC benefits especially the most disadvantaged children, whose gains in cognitive and socio-emotional development are higher than for ‘average’ children. However, according to the report “Support for children with special educational needs”, from the DG for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, these children tend to be less represented in ECEC, due to the lack of adapted environment. In the partner countries, only Slovenia, which acted as a “mentor partner”, has had an adapted provision of education for many years, including additional assistance for inclusive education, and the majority of children with special needs attends mainstream kindergartens and schools. This translates into the Early School Leaving (ESL) rate, which is only of 5%. In Czech Republic, the situation has very recently changed (2017), as a new legislation was passed, according to which the mainstream education should always be the first choice for children with special education needs, and they are legally entitled to receive support. In Spain, the education system is decentralised and regions were asked to develop “Attention to Diversity plans”. However, in the Canary Islands, no specific funding has been allocated to early attention to children with ASD, contrary to other regions such as the Basque Country, the Valencian Community or the Community of Madrid in which an average of 472€ per child is invested for additional support to inclusive education. This policy also translates into the ESL rate, which is of 19% in the Canary Islands, and 8% in the Basque country for example. In the Czech Republic, children with ASD are taken into account but they are usually segregated in separate classes. For both these countries, the ESL rate for disabled people is of 28%, while it is only of 5% for students without any disability. Taking all this into account, the specific objectives of the project were the followings: - Allow preschool teachers to have the necessary knowledge and competences to be able to include children with ASD in the activities of the classroom; - Reduce disparities in learning outcomes between children with and without ASD. The activities were the followings: - Using the partners’ knowledge and experience about inclusive education and ASD to create a report based on observations in schools, and from there create tailored experience-based teacher’s training; - Piloting and testing these outputs in 7 pre-schools. The project particularly resulted in: - The involvement of 27 pre-school teachers in the project’s activities; - 13 EU organisations (partner organisations & associated partners) becoming experts in the inclusion of children with ASD; - An experience-based teachers’ training, available for any interested stakeholder at EU and international level; - 4 multiplier events to disseminate the project’s results and raise awareness on the need for a more inclusive education for children with ASD; - 4 newsletters to inform stakeholders on the progress and results of the project; - 1 impact report comparing the situation of the children in the classroom, before and after the project, and some guidelines on how to use the online training. - 17 press articles or radio/TV interviews or reports. - 1 project website gathering all the information about the project, its results available for download, and its implementation, including contact details of each partner; - 2 signed declarations of local authorities willing to support the further exploitation of project’s results in the future; - Raised awareness to authorities about the need for inclusion of children with ASD in ECEC. At EU level, this project increased the quality of education Europe by making available two highly innovative intellectual outputs to encourage the take-up of initiatives to improve the inclusion of children with ASD.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability. It is a spectrum condition also referred to as an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The word ‘spectrum’ is used because while all ASD people share three main areas of difficulty (social communication and interaction, flexibility of thought) the condition affects people in very different ways. Some are able to live relatively independent lives, while others will require a lifetime of specialist support.Today, between 1 in 100 and 1 in 150 individuals are diagnosed with autism, amounting to around 3.3 million people with autism in the European Union (Autism-Europe, 2009). Studies indicate that across the European Union between 76% and 90% of ASD adults are unemployed (The National Autistic Society, 2013). Given that individuals with autism often struggle with the social and communication aspects of work (i.e understanding instructions, interviews, working in a team) these statistics might not seem surprising. However, the greatest employment obstacles that people with ASD face are not caused by their disability but by lack of access to opportunities and by stigma and discrimination in relation to their condition (Autism-Europe, 2014). Despite that, adults with autism often really want to work and have many strengths that can make them potentially outstanding employees (i.e attention to detail, loyal, reliable) (Redman, S. et al., 2009).They simply need assistance to overcome the barriers and difficulties they face.Across Europe, there is a serious lack of education and training that could give people with autism the vocational, social and communication skills that are required for employment. When a person with ASD does seek employment, regardless of whether they managed to gain a relevant education or not, they are often faced with stigma and discrimination related to their autism. Even if a person does not reveal their condition to a potential employer, chances are they will be turned away because employers interpret their communication and social interaction difficulties as clear signs that they are not suitable employees, instead of seeing that with specific forms of support the individual could perform well in the job. Furthermore, for those who do manage to gain a job, keeping it is another challenge, as the combination of inherent difficulties, lack of support and social attitudes can be overwhelming for a person with ASD (Autism-Europe, 2014).The project has the following objectives:•Understanding the benefits of a neurodiverse workforce•understanding autism•increasing awareness of the difficulties an ASD person may face at the workplace•Creating an autism-friendly recruitment process.•Designing an autism-friendly workspaceDuring the project we will developIO1: “opportunities4autism” VET trainer curriculum IO2: “opportunities4autism VET trainer HandbookIO3: “opportunities4autism” Practical Guide for employers IO4: e-learning platform6 Multiplier events (1 in each partner country) including 1 final International conference 2 Learning-Teaching-Training (LTT) activities: Short term training event for VET trainers (C1) 1 short term training event for employers (C2) will be carried out resulting in not only raising awareness about ASD, but also in the VET trainers’ professional development