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Aspergers Corporations in Norway

Mission Before Waking

Mission Before Waking

Well-Known Member
In Norway, there's getting more and more of these so called Aspergers Corporations. These companies hires ONLY people with Aspergers syndrome and gives them the job they WANT. They can also train you and teach you in something if you dont know it yet. In an AS-Corporation, they always prioritize your very few interests and needs. Does you guys have this in your countries and/or USA?

From the 1st September i will be hired in an Aspergers-corp. and get 6 months in order to learn C ++ programming. If i fail, they will find something else for me to do. But they wont kick me out
 
I've heard about a few of these companies around, including at least one in my country (The Netherlands). They even were on television at one time where they talked about ASD and employment.

The notion is quite interesting that they want people on the spectrum since they might be better at certain tasks. However, what bothers me is that most, if not all, are geared towards IT. I'm not one of those IT aspies at all. I mean, I know how to troubleshoot my home network and then some more technical computer related things, but thinking I'd be interested in doing any job that involves computers would be a stretch.

On the other hand, perhaps if I was given an opportunity; learning C++ in 6 months shouldn't be that hard (ducks, just in case any programmers disagree) if it would involve employment and a good income. But as it is now I don't really have any motivation to do so for my private situation, nor does it look appealing to just do as a "hobby".

What I found interesting when I saw the program on television about it is that the company here, did hire aspies, but from what I understood they all had university level education anyway in the field. So in a sense it still fails to accommodate those who already have issues getting through education (read; dropouts); even though education is sometimes seen as a "light" version of employment, it makes me wonder if governments and other "companies" aren't actually a bit out of touch with what's quite common for people on the spectrum, cause I'm somewhat convinced that if I were to be able to make it through college or university, I wouldn't have as much issues getting a job; having an "aspie-job" would just make it a bit easier in terms of support and guidance to maintain a degree of sanity though.
 
Many spectrum people are more prone to be self employed to avoid having to fit into "proper" moulds.

My honest opinion of a company that caters to people with ASD as being helpful to the autistic community if run by autistic management who understands autism,but harmful if it is just an exploit to gather the spectrum crowd for robots to do tasks the the NT world struggles with.

During my employment for the NT world,I can say I was exploited for my talents,but rose like cream to the top when they saw value in my work...just another example of economics.

Any time I worked for the "normal" world,I advanced to supervisory positions at every job I ever took and often times turned down upper management positions to stay where I fit best and still had my space.

My personal business ventures were carefully planned by me and let me be successful enough to have a very full life that touched a lot of the world while putting me in my own limelight.
 
bentHnau said:
There is one place in TX here in the U.S:

nonPareil Institute - About Us

I think it's new and maybe even not generating money yet. This doesn't seem to be a big thing in the U.S.
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There are a couple of companies like this that i have found in the US but not nearly enough for those of us with autism.

I actually want to find more of them like this to find employment with or other websites that you can leave your resume and they offer it to employers that look for people with disabilities
 
Mission Before Waking said:
In Norway, there's getting more and more of these so called Aspergers Corporations. These companies hires ONLY people with Aspergers syndrome and gives them the job they WANT. They can also train you and teach you in something if you dont know it yet. In an AS-Corporation, they always prioritize your very few interests and needs. Does you guys have this in your countries and/or USA?

From the 1st September i will be hired in an Aspergers-corp. and get 6 months in order to learn C ++ programming. If i fail, they will find something else for me to do. But they wont kick me out
Click to expand...
Not heard of anything like that in the UK but it sounds interesting. I suspect that it won't happen in my lifetime as we are always behind the curve on other far sighted countries.
 
I think it sounds interesting, but I actually think I benefit from having non-AS coworkers as long as they are understanding.

One problem I have is that it seems as if the only companies really interested in publicly employing people with Aspergers are tech companies. Which makes me angry; in some ways it perpetuates the stereotype that we're all tech nerds. I am a nerd in my own way, but most of the technology I'm expert in dates to the 18th century...
 
Miker said:
Not heard of anything like that in the UK but it sounds interesting. I suspect that it won't happen in my lifetime as we are always behind the curve on other far sighted countries.
Click to expand...
The Danish company Specialisterne (the original instigators of software testing as the perfect job for Aspies) did open an office in the UK in 2010, in Glasgow, but it folded after two years. I wrote a piece for Asperger United about my experience of the application process which was published in their April 2012 issue (go to page 14). Bizarrely, I have also found a French translation of my piece (not by me!) here: Est-ce que Specialisterne est aussi bien qu’on le dit?

Later on Specialisterne relaunched in the UK, this time in London as "Specialists UK" and acting more as a recruitment consultancy than as a software company. They were involved in the first series of Employable Me. After they got me the job at National Grid, I was featured on their website as a success story. Unfortunately my success was short-lived, as was Specialists UK; they folded just when I was informed that my contract would not be renewed after a year.
 
There's a thread by an ex-Specialisterne Scotland employee on Wrong Planet which makes no mention of the trainees-as-volunteers business model. Curiouser and curiouser...
Specialisterne
 
If your job is guaranteed under such an organization, then your pay is really low or they are filling some kind of quota behind the scenes. If you're hired as a full timer, your job is never 100% secure. It is much harder to get fired, but it can happen. I have personally witnessed this, and the person did not belong to the firm unfortunately because he could not communicate functionally well and wasn't able to complete the work asked of him despite his Masters in Chemistry or Biology.
 
paloftoon said:
If your job is guaranteed under such an organization, then your pay is really low or they are filling some kind of quota behind the scenes.
Click to expand...

It's most likely a government department that pays either all or most of the salary for the first year at least. It's called NAV. You will get a normal salary in Norway, it's just paid by someone else than the employer. This is a nanny state, there's always a department somewhere standing by to help if help is needed. It can be very helpful for people in difficult life situations.
 
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