Seeing What’s Possible: YEA’s Workshop at Mark Rutherford School
Sometimes, the most rewarding part of a workshop is seeing a young person do something nobody expected.
Recently, YEA had the opportunity to run our Build Your First Business workshop at the Nightingale ASC Centre at Mark Rutherford School, which supports pupils with autism.
Together, we explored business ideas, developed plans and gave pupils the opportunity to pitch what they had created. Ideas ranged from pets and animals to sports and food, with plenty of creativity along the way.
For some of the pupils, speaking up in front of others or sharing their ideas in a classroom setting can be a real challenge.
One pupil, who was usually quiet and rarely contributed in class, stood up and presented his team's business idea, complete with products he had sketched out himself.
What made the moment even more special was the reaction from his teachers. They were seeing him express ideas and demonstrate abilities that they hadn't really seen before.
Entrepreneurship is about much more than starting a business. It's an opportunity to explore an interest, solve a problem, make decisions and bring an idea to life. For autistic young people, a deep interest in a subject might become specialist knowledge, an eye for detail could help improve a product, or seeing the world differently might lead to an idea someone else hasn't considered.
Of course, every young person is different, and the challenges they face shouldn't be overlooked. But we also need to make sure those challenges aren't the only thing we see.
Too often, conversations about autism focus on the barriers young people may encounter. It's just as important to recognise their strengths, take their ideas seriously and give them opportunities.
Following the workshop, one member of staff shared some lovely feedback:
"I loved how strongly you championed autistic people and their skills and truly believed in their future success. A really important message for our students to hear because us autistic lot are so used to hearing about the barriers to life we face."
It's difficult to put it better than that.
We know that not every young person will want to start a business, and that's not the point. What matters is giving them opportunities to try something new, discover their strengths and build confidence in what they can bring to the world.
For some pupils, that might mean finding their voice in a presentation. For others, it might be realising that an idea they've had could become something real. And sometimes, it means a teacher getting to see a side of a pupil they hadn't seen before.
.png)