Brightwire: Helping neurodivergent youth transition to self-employment

Description

Young people leaving school are typically offered a narrow set of prescribed routes: further study, an apprenticeship, or employment. For many neurodivergent young people, these routes fit poorly with how they work, and they often leave school unsure of what they need or what other options exist.

Self-employment is rarely presented to them as a realistic pathway, even though many of the traits associated with neurodivergence, such as hyperfocus, pattern recognition and independence, can be valuable assets in running a business.

Careers guidance and entrepreneurship education in schools have so far done little to connect these two conversations. Brightwire starts from a strengths-based position: it works with traits, without requiring a diagnosis, and helps young people recognise how they work and imagine careers that fit them, including working for themselves.

Research overview

Brightwire is a digital platform for neurodivergent young people aged 14 to 18, developed at Leeds University Business School.

Young people complete a short trait assessment covering twelve traits grouped into four areas: Focus, Decision-making, Creativity and Connection. The platform turns their responses into a personal trait portrait and guides them through stages of exploring and testing career ideas, with self-employment presented alongside other options. A companion set of materials supports careers advisors and teachers in using the portraits with students.

The research follows a prospective, intervention-oriented design, building the platform from clear design principles and testing whether it changes outcomes for schools and students. The current phase involves pre-pilot interviews with recent school leavers, gap year takers, young people who are becoming self-employed or considering it, and careers advisors, exploring what is working for them, what they enjoy and what they find challenging.

A pilot in schools will follow, assessing the platform’s effects at two levels: whether it provides schools with self-employment provision where none existed, and whether it helps students recognise their strengths and picture careers aligned with how they work.

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Key findings

The development phase established a set of design principles, each drawn from evidence on careers interventions, neurodivergence and youth engagement:

• Traits, without diagnosis. Brightwire describes twelve traits as preferences and ways of working. It requires no diagnosis and uses no clinical labels.
• Twelve separate traits. Each trait is reported on its own rather than combined into a single score, because research indicates that these characteristics vary independently of one another.
• Self-employment as one option among several. It is presented neutrally alongside study, training and employment.
• Guided use. Evidence suggests that careers tools work better when used with an adult than when used alone. Brightwire therefore pairs the student experience with a handbook and materials for careers advisors.
• Young people stay in control. Students decide what they share with an advisor and can withdraw that permission. All content follows a safeguarding charter written for a 14 to 18 audience.
• A staged journey. Students move from understanding their portrait, to exploring what it means, to testing career ideas in practice.

Publications and outputs

• Pivoting Inwards: How trait duality recalibrates neurodivergent entrepreneurship, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Rob Edwards, Abdullah Al Mamu, Pablo Muñoz
• Helping Neurodivergent Young Adults Transition to Self- Employment: Brightwire Foundations, August 2026

Contact

Professor Pablo Muñoz