Legacy of Previous Projects

Employability Forum has been involved in many different projects since its inception in 2000. Although EF itself is not a service provider, it has played an important facilitative role for projects, as well as piloting new ideas and concepts.

EF realises that refugee and migrant integration is a complex process, necessitating the interaction of a variety of stakeholders. Employability Forum therefore acts as an important link between agencies as well as an effective partner.

This section details three projects in which Employability Forum has been involved: the Trellis Project (a system of refugee link officers based in jobcentres in Birmingham); Rayne Fellowships (offering refugees a chance to gain experience in sectors otherwise difficult for them to navigate); and the PRESTO Project (a partnership of 11 organisations working on refugee employment issues).

Trellis

Trellis was based in Birmingham and ran between May 2005 and June 2008. Its key aims were to improve the engagement of refugee jobseekers with Jobcentre Plus and to increase employment outcomes. Methods for achieving this included:

  • Recruiting employment advisors who were themselves refugees;
  • Working directly with refugee jobseekers in Birmingham, providing free and impartial employment information, advice and guidance and matching clients with the right support services and employment opportunities;
  • Working in partnership with a range of agencies and organisations to ensure that employment support services were more user friendly for clients. It also worked with refugee communities to strengthen their capacity to participate in the development of these services;
  • Working with employers to raise awareness of the benefits of employing refugees and promoting best practice in the recruitment and employment of refugees.

Project outcomes:

Four main outputs were delivered through the project and all the targets were exceeded. The profile against actual outputs figures as of 22 April 08 were as follows:

  • job seekers identified (600 target/663 achieved)
  • employers engaged (35 target/45 achieved)
  • work experience placements (50 target/70 achieved)
  • employment outcomes (100 target/248 achieved)

A final report into the impact of the Trellis project is available here.

Research

In 2006, the Trellis project commissioned research into the experiences of refugees seeking employment locally. Issues surrounding Jobcentre Plus provision were explored in detail. A copy of the report is available here

Trellis was funded by the Invest to Save Budget, the Home Office and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and its partners included:

  • Birmingham City Council
  • Jobcentre Plus
  • Learning & Skills Council
  • Refugee Employment, Training and Advocacy Forum (RETAF)
  • West Midlands Local Government Consortium

Rayne Fellowships

Following discussions with the Rayne Foundation, Employability Forum established an initiative to enable refugees to make full use of their skills and experience, through awards of Rayne Fellowships.

A 2 day course was run in June 2007 by consultants from Phoenix for a group of 20 refugees from different parts of the UK.

Faduma and Dan were selected as the first ever refugee Rayne Fellows and have had opportunities to secure training and work experience in different organisations.

Faduma has completed an internship in the House of Commons with Karen Buck M.P. and is currently working on her own social enterprise with the Somali community.

Dan has gained experience of community radio and broadcasting so that he can develop his ideas for starting a radio station in the East Midlands. He has attended radio production courses in both the U.K and abroad and is currently studying for a Masters in radio broadcasting. He has secured European Union funding for his own radio station in Peterborough.

If you have any queries or require further information, please contact the Employability Forum.

PRESTO

PRESTO (the Partnership for Refugee Employment through Support, Training and Online Learning) brought together 11 organisations between 2004 and 2007 to test new models to improve the employment prospects of refugee professionals in health, education, engineering, enterprise and ICT. PRESTO had a significant impact in influencing both policy development and delivery. This was done in a variety of ways, including:

  • engaging with policy development, both nationally and at a regional level;
  • working with individual employers to discover practical issues around discrimination legislation;
  • gathering case studies of refugee professionals in the UK;
  • establishing a model for involving beneficiaries in developing services;
  • producing briefings on work placements; refugee engagement; employer engagement; and support, training and enterprise;
  • developing strategies to enable refugees to work in health, education and engineering;
  • convening conferences and meetings to ensure a broad dispersal of information;
  • creating a national database for refugee engineers;
  • piloting initiatives to support refugees into employment and self-employment;
  • creating a range of products for refugee clients and agencies to support employment;
  • working in partnership with organisations in different EU member states to reflect on common issues, exchange best practice and to explore the wider context of managed migration in the EU.

PRESTO was particularly effective in engaging with refugees themselves to ensure that the partnership was responsive to their needs. An Advisory Group of refugees was established to be consulted on delivery methods, new approaches and the viability of former models.