Specialisterne

Specialisterne (Danish for "The Specialists") is a socially innovative company utilizing the characteristics of autistic people as a competitive advantage in the labor market. Specialisterne’s mission is “To educate stakeholders in talent and career development for autistic people through innovation, collaboration and knowledge sharing.” The vision is “A world where people are given equal opportunities in the labor market”. Specialisterne’s goal is to enable 1 million jobs for autistic people worldwide.

Specialisterne is now present with local offices in eleven countries and through partnerships in three countries. Specialisterne provides different programs depending on country and location. In Denmark, Specialisterne provide assessment, training, education and employment of autistic people, where in the USA the focus is on partnerships and hiring programs such as SAP's Autism at Work porgram.

Specialisterne is currently operating in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. Specialisterne is operating through partnerships in Argentina, Czech Republic, Norway, Poland and India.

Background

In 1999, the lives of the Sonne family in Denmark changed when their youngest son, Lars, was diagnosed with autism. After being explained the autism diagnosis, all of a sudden, Lars was perceived as disabled. But for Lars, nothing had changed. He was still the same boy – only now he had an autism label to document how he deviates from the norm.

Thorkil Sonne, Lars’ father, then became active in the Danish Autism Association, where he learned that autistic people are often isolated and rarely stand a chance when looking for employment. Worrying about his son’s future, Thorkil took a big step, quit his job, remortgaged the family home and started Specialisterne in 2004.

Initially, Specialisterne started as a consultancy company, where autistic people was hired to solve tasks for other companies such as TDC. It later evolved to include an assessment and training unit, where autistic people would get referred by their municipality, in order to find their strength and motivations and provide job training.

In 2008, Thorkil founded the not-for-profit Specialisterne Foundation with the goal to enable one million jobs for autistic people. Thorkil handed over all shares of Specialisterne Denmark to Specialisterne Foundation, who owns the Specialisterne brand and establish Specialisterne organizations across the world.

Today

Specialisterne is now present in 16 countries. Specialisterne started servicing the IT sector, but recent hiring programs have been looking for other roles e.g. customer service, HR and agriculture and the list keeps expanding. Specialisterne provides training programs to access and build up personal, social and professional skills and have now gained over 12 years of experience with assessment of autistic people. The assessment and training programs offered by Specialisterne revolve around the use of Lego Mindstorms robots, to help detect strengths, motivation and development opportunities for each candidate.

In 2010, Specialisterne in Denmark opened a 3 year Youth Education Program for autistic people age 16-25 years. The program is tailored to meet each student’s needs and interests and focus on developing academic, social and personal skills. The goal is to develop each student’s capacity to start ordinary or supported education or employment after finishing the program.

Specialisterne Foundation owns the Specialisterne brand and Specialisterne Denmark. Specialisterne Foundation maintains a focus on transferring knowledge on how to focus on strengths rather than weaknesses and abilities rather than disabilities. Through participation in conferences, workshops and courses, Specialisterne and Specialisterne Foundation spread awareness of the Autism Advantage. based on the method of positive thinking called The Dandelion Model. The dandelion is the symbol that represents Specialisterne’s worldview. Instead of thinking of the Dandelion as a weed to be rooted out of the lawn, it can reveal the most stunning qualities for those who are willing to cultivate it.

The logo

The logo is a Dandelion seed. To most people, the dandelion is nothing more than an annoying weed – something to be rooted out of our lawns and flower beds. But what a lot of people do not know is that, when cultivated, the dandelion is one of the most valuable and useful plants in nature. The dandelion is known for its nutritional, healing and medicinal properties. The value of a dandelion is very much dependent on our knowledge and perception of its value. So is a dandelion a weed or an herb? A weed is a plant in an environment where it is not welcomed. If the plant is transferred to an environment where it is welcomed – it turns into an herb. The Dandelion symbolizes how Specialisterne sees autistic people – they possess valuable skills that can be utilized and become a competitive advantage, if given the chance.

Awards

Specialisterne has been presented with:

Thorkil Sonne has been presented with:


References

    External links

    External links

    Official site

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