CAN – Counselling and career guidance for Adults to value Neurodiversity

forthcoming

The CAN project addresses the urgent need for inclusive upskilling and reskilling in Europe, responding to persistent labour shortages and the underrepresentation of neurodivergent individuals in the workforce. Despite their unique cognitive strengths, neurodivergent people face systemic barriers in career guidance, training and validation of skills. Many remain undiagnosed, misjudged by stereotypes suggesting they lack social, personal and learning-to-learn competences. As a result, they are often confined to low-skilled roles, with limited career prospects and increased risk of burnout in environments that fail to accommodate their needs or recognise their strengths. CAN proposes a shift in narrative: from a deficit-based view to one that values neurodivergent talent and diversity. The project will develop a scalable, sustainable counselling and career guidance model tailored to the diverse interests, abilities and aspirations of individuals both neurodivergent and with neurodivergent traits. It will promote access to broad upskilling and reskilling opportunities across sectors, moving beyond narrow assumptions (e.g. autistic people in ICT). At its core, the model will offer: ● neuroinclusive self-assessment and personalised support to reinforce Personal, Social and Learning to Learn key competence and career management skills; ● capacity-building for counsellors, guidance professionals and HR managers to deliver effective, individualised support; ● early and continuous engagement of SMEs and stakeholders to ensure cultural change, uptake and policy impact. Particularly targeting SMEs—key to the EU economy but often lacking resources—CAN will unlock hidden potential and foster innovation. It builds on proven tools from the (r)evolutionary model developed and validated in the Neurodiversity at Work project (www.neurodiverseworkplaces.eu) aligning with the European Skills Agenda, the Union of Skills Communication and the Upskilling Pathways Initiative.