For I have promises to keep

Twelve months ago, standing in front of a packed House of Commons reception to celebrate 20 years of TCES, I made a promise; that in our next 20 years we would become known not just as outstanding educators for those who are neurodiverse, but as excellent employers for them also.

This month we made good on that promise, with our very first alumni learning mentor employee, Nick now on the pay roll and working with his own cohort of pupils. Next month we hope he will be joined by another alumni employee, Maison with more to follow in 2021.

An important part of Nick’s preparation for employment was volunteering with us as an alumni mentor while also at college. He’s received training from our pastoral team, and a mentoring qualification. We’ve also transitioned his ‘All About Me‘ plan that identified his strengths, talents, areas of need and support as a pupil, to our HR department, so that he can be properly supported as an employee now.

If that sounds like a lot of work, it was. And the work to find an appropriate apprenticeship provider so that Nick is studying towards at least a Level 3 qualification in sport in his first two years with us goes on.

But whatever we’ve needed to put in, pales into insignificance when we see the impact that Nick has on our pupils. Using his specialism of sport, Nick is working 1:1 with a group of seven pupils this term. He’s making breakthroughs using discrete mentoring that pupils know comes from a place of lived experience, delivered through exercise sessions that they can see have been devised by a highly skilled sportsman.

I’ve been around a lot of excellent practioners and Nick is already showing a level of commitment, reflection and professionalism, combined with a fierce intelligence and desire to improve his skills, that makes me confident he has a great career ahead of him. Not bad for a young man whose challenging and violent behaviour had seen him excluded from multiple schools before he reached TCES North West London. 

Across our schools in Years 8 to 13 we currently have 18 peer mentors, honing their skills and gaining vital experience and extra qualifications. We expect many of these pupils to go on to become alumni mentor volunteers and some to choose to work for TCES full-time after that, while working towards an apprenticeship qualification. We’re creating an employment pathway for uniquely talented individuals whose potential may very well be missed by others. Shockingly just 16 per cent of adults with ASC are in full-time employment, despite 77 per cent of them wanting to work.

As educators and employers, we need to step up in bold, imaginative and, yes, sometimes time-consuming ways, so that talented young people like Nick, like Maison and many others like them have the opportunity to live happy and successful working lives.

If not us, then who? If not now, then when?