You can’t switch an employment system off overnight. But you can start building a better one alongside it.

In this episode of The World of Work, Jacob speaks with Dr Peter Smith, Director of the Centre for Disability Employment Research and Practice. Peter works with governments, universities and international agencies in Australia and overseas. Rather than asking “how do we get this person into a job?”, his work asks “why are our employment systems producing the outcomes they are?”

Peter shares his path from support worker to systems researcher. He and Jacob then dig into why current systems fall short and what a better one could look like.

In this episode:

• Why systems that pay for discrete milestones struggle to support employment as a lifelong journey
• Why inclusion and decent work have to be defined by the individual, not the system
• Measuring what a job actually changes in someone’s life: independence, finances, housing and health
• Peter’s Sensory Comfort Mapping Tool, and why finding the right sensory environment can come before finding the job
• Customised employment and finding the “jobs behind the jobs”
• How Australia’s three employment systems could work together as one journey-based system
• Building a new system alongside the old one, piece by piece

Peter closes with what gives him hope: governments and organisations around the world are still searching for better answers rather than settling for “good enough”.

Resources:

• Centre for Disability Employment Research and Practice, which offers online training, free employment toolkits, an annual customised employment conference and its own podcast: https://www.cderp.com.au
• Connect with Dr Peter Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-peter-smith-54a50844/

This conversation is part of Autism Valued’s World of Work series. The series explores neurodivergent employment, workplace reform, and what inclusive work design looks like in practice. Join the conversation through the AV Career Network on LinkedIn.