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[music]
I’ve been working most of my professional life in the role of supporting people with
autism. And so it’s very much part of who I am, the work that I do with people who I
think see the world differently and if we can understand the way that they see the world
then it can improve the quality of life that they have.
The University of Birmingham is the leading provider of degree level and postgraduate
education for people caring for or working with individuals on the autistic spectrum
in the UK. The Autism Centre for Education and Research offers 3 courses. The Webautism
distance learning programme; the Autism (Children) programmes and the Autism (Adults) programmes.
The Autism Spectrum or WebAutism course, is a one year, undergraduate, distance learning
programme, designed to provide students with a broad understanding of the autism spectrum
and an introduction to the latest research and an insight into current practice. It is
an entry level course that offers a university qualification and a progression route to further
study. The WebAutism course is an undergraduate course
which is for people who don’t necessarily have to have an academic background. They
are all practitioners, they are people who are either working with or caring for people
on the autism spectrum but they might have been out of formal education for a long time.
We build in online discussion into the whole core of the programme itself, so that online
discussions are accessed as well. And one of the real strengths of the programme I think,
is that we have always put people working with children, parents and people working
with adults in tutor groups together. What that means is, is that they start looking
at the person with autism in a much more holistic way.
The Autism (Children) programmes, are designed for professionals working with children and
young people on the autism spectrum. The courses offered are taught on the University of Birmingham
campus on a full or part time basis. Students can also study this course part time from
anywhere in the UK or internationally as part of a distance learning programme.
Given that the majority of children with autism are in mainstream schools, we have to work
hard to try and help the staff in those schools work effectively with them. There are many,
many demands on teachers within mainstream education and therefore we’ve got to give
them tools and ideas that they can easily and quickly understand and use.
The Autism (Adults) programmes are designed for practitioners working with adults across
the autism spectrum within colleges, residential care, vocational or support services. It is
studied part time and draws upon each students own experience as part of the content and
assessment. The Autism (Adults) course is distinctive,
because it’s focussing on practitioners who are in the adult field. Much of the literature
and research is focussed on children and so I think it’s quite refreshing to be in a
course where it is absolutely relevant to the field that you are working in.
I think the benefit of the programme for the students is that they are in seminar groups
hearing about the experiences of other people in their work places, so they are benefitting
not only from the prepared material of the course but also from their interactions with
all the other students as they go through the programme.
[student giving lecture] The academic reputation of the Autism Centre
for Education and Research attracts a wide range of students, including those wishing
to pursue their research at PhD level. The CPD and distance learning programmes are also
popular with teachers, trainers and carers in the field of autism and education.
At the moment I’m a PhD student within the ACER team and I did my masters degree here
as well so I have been here for the last 5 years. The masters degree for autism is very
well known in Greece, the Birmingham one, Rita Jordan used to be here and Glenys Jones
, they are very well known, both of them. So it was my first choice and thankfully I
got an offer and here I am. I was teaching in FE and was then made redundant,
whilst single dad and my son’s autistic and then after I was made redundant I was
diagnosed with Aspergers myself. The idea was already there to do something around autism
and I saw the courses running here and kind of people that were involved in it and I thought
I would just send in the application and I got through and they liked it so here I am.
I’m a trainer myself, but I do want to be able to have the knowledge and the expertise
to be able to pass that on to other people who work in the social care field. There are
just not enough people out there who know at the moment about autism to be able to pass
that information on so that’s why I came. The organisation I work for have asked me
to create a course for the staff so it’s going to be about passing on the underpinning
knowledge I gain from this course to the staff that I line manage, so that’s why I’m
doing this course. The courses that we run here are fantastic
vehicles for people getting their ideas heard and out there.