The integration of refugees in the labour market has crucial importance for their better integration to the European society. Furthermore, refugees’ employment could be a solution for a wide range of problems that European labour markets currently suffer from, e.g. skill shortage – especially in rural areas, ageing workforces, or the lack of motivated apprentices. In these circumstances, refugees represent an important resource of human capital for European enterprises.
However, many European employers are still hesitant to employ refugees and HR managers may lack specific competences and tools needed for successful interaction with refugees.
European project REST intends to fill this gap and make employing refugees and their work integration easier for employers.
During the first phase of the project, quantitative and qualitative research conducted among European employers and experts emerged some barriers, challenges and concerns linked to refugees’ employment. Employers, for example, expressed their concern about refugees’ unclear legal, professional and personal situation, increased workload and linguistic barriers. REST partners were also exploring which benefits related to refugees’ work integration employers perceive and what are their training needs.
REST Partners presented and discussed main research findings during the second partners’ meeting which took place in Roubaix, France, on July 6th – 7th. Based on the employers’ training needs identified during the research, REST partners drafted a comprehensive training package tailored for small and medium enterprises and organisations to support them during employing and integrating refugees at their workplaces.
The project partners agreed on the structure and contain of training modules including Legal framework, Intercultural competencies, Identification, recruitment and induction of refugees, Mentoring and learning on the job, and Tools facilitating communication at work reducing the language barrier.
In the course of next months, the training content will be created and structured in the form of workshops, e-learning, learning materials and online platform.
REST – Refugee Employment Support and Training is a two-year-project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Union.
The project partnership holds together eight European partners:
- Landkreis Kassel (Germany, coordinator);
- Die Berater Unternehmensberatungs GmbH (Austria);
- Blinc e.g. (Germany);
- ADICE – Association pour le développement des initiatives citoyennes et européennes (France);
- FOUR ELEMENTS (Greece);
- Catro (Bulgaria);
- Syrian Forum Austria (Austria);
- CESIE (Italy).
If you are interested in participating in the REST Training or just wish to learn more about the project, you are welcome to contact Cecilie Grusova.
