The Future of Neurodiversity and Skilled Employment is a participatory research project exploring why neurodivergent people remain under- and unemployed in skilled work, and what it would take for them to thrive.

About the Project

We brought together a group of neurodivergent experts, people with both lived experience of neurodivergence and professional expertise in employment, to define the most urgent problems and design strategies for change. Because skilled employment for neurodivergent people is a complex, “wicked” problem, we used systems-thinking methods: Soft Systems Methodology, futures visioning, and group model building.

Why It Matters

Neurodivergent people can train for skilled work as well as anyone, yet they remain under- and unemployed. Most programs try to change the individual. Our research reframes the problem: the barriers live in workplaces and systems, so that is where change has the most leverage. Small, well-designed shifts in wellbeing, workplace climate, and everyday relationships can make a large difference.

Project outputs