Happy Autism Awareness Week! :)
Max and Jon spent yesterday up at the Houses of Parliament speaking to Some of the Lords, MPs, and The Minster of Apprenticeships about how The Apprenticeship scheme can be more accessible for People with Autism and special needs.
Some really interesting Figures what show from the event.Less than 2% of Apprentices declared a moderate learning difficulty (the closest proxy we have in the data sets for mild/moderate learning disability). It is unclear how many apprentices are autistic.
Lord Touhig who visited Sovereign also attended the meeting after Max emailed him to let him know that Max will be back up the Houses Of Parliament, Lord Tohig Said in the meeting "Sovereign was a great company and was impressed with the support they gave, in all my years I have never been at a company so welcoming, after 5 minutes you felt part of the furniture and I was happy with all the information that I was given, it was clear that Sovereign are a caring and supportive organisation which other companies could benefit from looking at to learn and support people with Autism."
Max also took along a mentor and his old teacher and Now Friend Jon Reid to the meeting who now teaches other students who are learning to become teachers about Autism.
Historically few people with a learning disability have completed an Apprenticeship. A key reason for this has been the fact Apprentices must achieve Level 1 in both English and Maths in order to complete.
This has meant many people with a learning disability perfectly capable of doing the job with which the Apprenticeship is concerned, have been unable to complete due to the level of English and maths.
A lot of MP'S Supported the cause in Parliament by wearing the National Autism Awareness weeks Badges.
Max's Main Goal is to speak to them about the struggles he faced and How Sovereign Helped him and supported him to beat those challenges, So Other Companies will offer the same opportunities to other people like Max.
Max filmed a video of the day, the video has not yet been released.