Refugee Employability Programme Marks Refugee Week and Eid in Yorkshire

• The Growth Company (GC) delivers the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme (REP) across Yorkshire and the Humber.
• The programme aims to help refugees into sustained employment through individually tailored support.
• To celebrate Refugee Week, the REP team hosted a full day of activities in Sheffield and attended Eid In The Park in Rotherham. 

The Refugee Employability Programme hosted an event on Wednesday, 19th June at the Circle, Sheffield, to mark Refugee Week, showcasing the positive impact the programme has had on refugees across Yorkshire in the process. 

The event opened with service managers Kate Liddle and Naveed Ahmed talking about REP and the milestones it has achieved so far. It was then the turn of the United for Ukraine team, who discussed their role in supporting Ukrainian refugees and what more can be done to help them.

Next, attendees joined the EmbRace EDI Network webinar, hearing from employment advisor Mohammad Adeel, who shared his lived experience as a refugee. After lunch, employment advisors Goitom Negash and Ali Chaman-Ali (both of whom have lived experiences as refugees), told the room how they navigated their way through a new country and how they use this experience to support their service users.

The final panel included ESOL tutors Homaira Ghaznawi and Aseel Al-Rawas, who gave an overview of how they equip service users not only with the language of the workplace, but with the knowledge of British culture to help them to integrate smoothly into society. Finally, to top the event off, there was a flag quiz with a prize on offer for the winning team.

REP received some great feedback, with the stories having a massive impact on the Home Office representatives who were in attendance.

And that’s not all for REP this week! The team have also been busy getting involved with Eid ul-Adha. Some REP colleagues attended the Eid in the Park Event in Rotherham on Monday, which saw around 2,000 people attend from the local community, with activities including Eid Prayer and children’s games.

Find Out More

Commissioned by the Home Office and delivered by the Growth Company, the Refugee Employability Programme helps refugees into work through tailored employability sessions, English language tuition, vocational training, job application assistance, and community integration support.

The programme also has a focus on providing locally informed advice to best support refugees to settle and thrive in their new communities.

Find out more on the REP website. 

The Growth Company

The Growth Company is an award-winning social enterprise with a mission to generate growth, create jobs, and improve lives.

We help people and businesses across the UK to develop, grow and succeed through a range of employment, skills and business support services. We provide employment, justice, and health services across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire and Humber. 

Contact us today to find out more.