German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT experts

[Geordie]

German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT experts 'because they think differently'
By 2020, SAP wants one per cent of its 65,000-strong workforce to have the condition

Hundreds of people with autism are being recruited by a German software designer to train as high tech IT experts.

SAP said it wants to recruit up to 500 of them because 'they think differently from others'. An autistic person is more likely to be of average or above-average intelligence and possess 'certain skills' that the company wants to tap into.

The firm employs more than 65,000 people globally. By 2020 the aim is for one percent of these to be autistic, it announced from its headquarters in south-western Germany.

Recruitment begins this year in Germany, America and Canada, assisted by Danish specialists with experience in hiring autistic people for large firms.

Indeed there is a higher than normal proportion of autistic people working in the information technology industry.

Autism as a condition was first brought home to millions by Dustin Hoffmann in the movie Rain Man in which he played the autistic brother of Tom Cruise's character.

People diagnosed with autism display different symptoms. Some people have no language, intellectual difficulties and are not able engage with others.

Other people may have very good or even advanced language skills but find social behavioural norms hard to grasp.

Autism has a strong genetic basis, although the genetics of autism are complex.

Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child's life. They usually develop gradually, but some autistic children first develop more normally and then regress.

Early behavioral or cognitive intervention can help autistic children gain self-care, social, and communication skills. Although there is no known cure, there have been reported cases of children who recovered.

WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE WITH AUTISM BETTER AT I.T.?

Autism and Asperger syndrome are both part of a range of related developmental disorders known as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD).

ASD can cause a wide range of symptoms including difficulties with social interaction, impaired language and communication skills as well as unusual or repetitive patterns of thought and physical behaviour.

Some people with autism are low-functioning meaning that they find it difficult to speak, interact and in some cases are only able to process minimal amounts of information.

However, at the other end of the spectrum is a very high-functioning person, who can in many cases outperform people with no underlying condition.

Studies have shown that these autistic people possess an enhanced ability to process information and remember data.
This may explain why there is a higher than normal proportion of autistic people working in the information technology industry.

A University College London study carried out last year gave 16 adults with autism and 16 adults without autism a task designed to assess their 'perceptual load capacity'.

Both groups were successful at the task in the easier initial stages, but the adults with autism significantly outperformed those without autism as the task became more difficult.

This, the scientists said, proved that the brains of autistic people are able to process greater amounts of information.
Previous studies have also linked the trademarks of genius - breathtaking achievement, attention to detail and obsession with a particular subject - to autism.

German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT experts 'because they think differently' | Mail Online

 

[Flinty]

Re: German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT expert

Wait...Canada?

(dusts off r?sum

 

[Athena]

Re: German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT expert

I think this news is quite interesting and hopeful for us (people with autism). It cheered me up!

 

[pacman]

Re: German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT expert

Interesting.

 

[Geordie]

Re: German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT expert

Amidst difficult circumstances people with autism face, such as unemployment and social alienation, it is my belief that people with autism should be given the opportunities needed to work up in life. It may mean more effort and more tries by both society and the person with autism who just keeps trying. But one more try, with a hand that guides us up, makes the world a richer and more gracious.

 

[Geordie]

Re: German software giant recruits people with autism to train as high tech IT expert

A reaction to this story:

A lot of people are telling me that as an “autism mother,” I should be thrilled that SAP, the German software company, is looking to hire hundreds of adults with the same disability as my son. SAP believes individuals who have autism make excellent software testers, programmers and data quality assurance specialists.

But I am not thrilled. I am worried.

Setting aside our own family’s reality—that an SAP job would be completely inappropriate for my son, now 25—I envision enormous potential for failure and disappointment. True, these come with the autism “territory.” This neuro-biological, communication disability is, indeed, both an epidemic and a puzzle not easily solved, even by a mass hiring like this one.

SAP seems to think it can take on the task of hiring and training so many disabled individuals with very little experience of its own. According to its own press release, it has hired only six people with autism in India, while screening for another five positions in Ireland. Compare these numbers to current official US data, which show that one in 88 children who are eight years old still have autism, meaning they are not likely to grow out of it. Globally, tens of millions of people are said to be affected.

Granted, what may save SAP is that it is wisely teaming up with the Specialisterne Foundation, an organization that has been earnestly working to employ individuals with autism in the software industry since 2004, founded by parents of a son with autism.

But does SAP know how to translate this into its own corporate culture? And what about all the “copycat” companies that might try to do this without support, whether to seek altruism brownie points or because they believe, with justification, that people with autism will help them to make more money?

To make money, a company needs to spend money. This is particularly true when it comes to hiring people with autism. Supporting even the most “high functioning” and verbal but affected individuals in a work environment often requires an extraordinary amount of resources, patience, skill, and perhaps genius. It takes life coaches, behaviorists, sensory integration experts, “social script” writers and more. You don’t merely welcome someone with autism to the firm and send them off to human resources.

The much-heralded ability of the autistic brain to focus is also widely misunderstood. I know very smart people with autism who would much prefer to “focus” on CSI, Star Wars or the intricacies of the calendar, than any other task at hand, including choosing a health plan or naming a beneficiary. Some would fight—legitimately, I think—for their right to do so, for their right to think differently. Learning how to handle this in an office setting requires training.

Getting back to my own son, Dan, and so many on the spectrum like him, I worry that this grandstanding by SAP will lead to stereotyping, which is the last thing people with autism need. Software is not the one-size-fits-all industry for autism. Or, as the clich? goes: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”

My son stopped talking when he was 3, after a period of prolonged development. He has movement issues, but they seem to fade when he works at a farm or when someone works closely with him. Over a few months, one of his aides was able to teach him to dismantle a computer with a screwdriver. What once took Dan 40 minutes to do now takes him four. He now also works taking apart computers in order for the parts to be recycled rather than landfilled.

I am grateful that my son is engaged by work. But it is frightening how truly far away we are from making sure that those who have autism live the full and productive lives to which they are entitled as human beings. An uncounted plethora of young adults with autism—adults who, like my son, would not be hired by SAP—work at jobs that are meaningless to them and society or stay home with elderly parents who soon won’ t be able to care for them.

As a society, we need to come up with many more solutions so that people with autism can work. In the best of worlds, SAP’s initiative will open those doors, as well as its own.

People with autism are not necessarily meant to be computer programmers – Quartz