General News
18 May, 2023
No job barriers for Harrison
New firm creates opportunities for those with disadvantages
A NEW social enterprise hub has opened in Cairns with the aim of providing 20 jobs for autistic people in the first year. White Box Enterprises, Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA) and Feraliser are the first to call the hub home, with fast-growing data analytics business ASA expected to create the jobs for autistic people.
ASA is a unique onshore dataoriented professional services provider that harnesses the talents of autistic people. It provides high quality data analysis for businesses and governments, securing contracts with Ventia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Queensland Department of Resources.
White Box chief entrepreneur Alex McDonald said in 2019 an opportunity was identified that “the exceptional talents of neurodiverse young adults weren’t being recognised, and there was no onshore spatial analytics service provider in Australia”.
“It was the perfect alignment for a jobs-focused social enterprise. Three years on, ASA is now opening its third office in Australia and has more than 100 employees.” said Mr McDonald.
ASA has offices in Brisbane, Melbourne and now Cairns. It is one of the fastest growing jobs-focused social enterprises in Australia, employing 110 individuals, 80 per cent of whom are neurodiverse. With the new Cairns location, ASA estimates it will create an additional 20 roles for neurodiverse young adults within 12 months. One of the analysts is Harrison Mobbs of Cairns.
“After finishing high school, I left Cairns in 2019 to study aviation in Brisbane. I got about a year into it and then I was diagnosed with ADHD, on top of my childhood diagnosis of autism. I knew the medication I needed to take meant I wouldn’t pass a medical to be a pilot, so decided not to continue,” he said.
“It was a bit rough to find out initially. I had to start from square one with no supports around me because I was in Brisbane.
“I was on Jobseeker when I received an accidental call from Autism Queensland. We got chatting and I discovered I fitted the bill for what they were looking for. And a week later I was lucky enough to be working at ASA. I’ve been here for almost 12 months now.
“Working at ASA is awesome. There is something new and challenging each day.
“The scope of what I’m doing is ever increasing in complexity. I’m doing a lot of drafting for constructing plans, using AutoCAD. I’d never used this before and now I’m assisting others in how to use it. It’s quite amazing what you can achieve in such a short timeframe when you have the right support.
“I’m full time now, the routine has been so important to me. Being neurodiverse, I find that having a routine adds a bit of structure to my life and helps me stay on track.”
