Exciting news from the not-for-profit sector for ambitious and career-driven neurodivergent people: social enterprise the Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) has partnered with Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA) to create career pathways for neurodivergent people in data and engineering.
ASA’s, a social enterprise that specialises in spatial and data analytics is on a mission to create more job opportunities for neurodivergent people. The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia’s fastest growing work-integration social enterprises from philanthropy, is teaming up with the ASA to provide a financial package of $2.5 million in grant funding and $2.5 million in impact investment. This support will help ASA expand its operations across Australia, offering support for individuals with neurodivergence.
ASA helps solve Australia’s skills shortages by accessing an untapped pool of talent. Young neurodivergent people face an unemployment rate of 34%, often, a barrier that they face is during the hiring and interviewing stages. To address this, ASA’s team works with people to employ their specialised cognitive talents, such as pattern recognition and memory retention; they match these talents with roles that provide high-quality spatial data services in the public and private sector.
Geoff Smith, the CEO of ASA, said, “This blended finance partnership is monumental for ASA and the work-integrated social enterprise sector,” he continues, “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”
Josephine Khalil, Head of Employment at PRF, sees ASA as a great example of how social enterprises can address social issues and contribute to solving national problems like skills shortages. This funding will enable ASA to employ over 100 young neurodivergent adults across five locations, providing alternative career pathways into industries facing critical skills shortages. The goal is to create a more dynamic and inclusive Australian labour market.
This partnership aligns with the government's growing focus on supporting neurodivergent individuals, as seen in initiatives like the recent white paper, Working Future, and the final report from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation of People with Disability.
Creating recruitment solutions that address the skills shortage while also creating inclusive work spaces is something we at Procurement Australia can get behind.
Our experience in building the Recruitment, Training and Associated Services contract is used to help our members with every step of their recruitment process, from start to end, no matter what your requirements are.