 Good morning everyone and welcome to our webinar. There are still more participants joining so we'll just wait one more minute to give everyone the chance to join. We'll start in a second. Thank you very much. Good morning everyone. I think you are ready to start so welcome to our webinar on labour market integration, promoting the employment of refugees in Europe. We're very pleased to see so many of you could join us. I see over 86 participants and more continue to join. So welcome everyone. We're looking forward to having an interesting discussion with all of you. Let me first introduce myself. My name is Gertre Lanoux and I work at the IOM Regional Office in Brussels where I'm responsible for migrant integration and labour mobility. I will be hosting the webinar today. I'll be your moderator but we also have other speakers and colleagues with you that are going to share their experience on how we can promote employment of refugees in Europe. Perhaps we can look together at the programme that we have for you today. First of all we have talent beyond boundaries. Marina Brizard was the UK director and she will tell us about skilled migration pathways for refugees. Skilled migration pathways also in the sense of complementary pathways to resettlement but Marina will explain us a bit more what is this as a complementary pathway and how we can offer employment opportunities in Europe to skilled refugees. Secondly we're going to look at the role of the private sector because of course we can't talk about the labour market integration of refugees without also looking at what is the role the private sector can play into that and how to render the labour market more inclusive and for that we're very happy to have with us Francesco Reale, secretary general ADECO and Monia Dardi, scientific coordinator and international affairs projects both from the ADECO foundation actually ADECO is also one of our partners under the commit project and then finally we're also very happy today to launch our new publication Guidelines on the labour market integration of resettled refugees in the EU it's a set of practical guidelines for practitioners who support resettled refugees in their labour market integration and Anna Giustiniani who's the commit project manager at our office in Rome will be presenting to you this new publication so you're the first ones to find out about this and I'm also pleased to see that by now we have 100 participants on board so thank you and welcome to everyone as I mentioned this webinar is actually organised under the commit project and commit is an EU funded project it's actually funded under the asylum migration and integration fund of the European Union and this project aims to increase both pre-departure and post-arrival support for the integration of persons in need of international protection who are being resettled to the EU so we're really looking at how to support the integration of refugees that come through resettlement programmes the project particularly looks at Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain it's the countries you see here in orange on the map but of course many of the practices of the guidelines of the publications are of relevance to all of us also also work on resettlement in other EU countries so if we can perhaps move to the next slide we'll see a bit more information about the objectives of this commit project generally what we aim to do with commit is strengthening the linkages between pre-departure and post-arrival support for resettled refugees with a specific focus on young refugees, on youth and on women we also have attended some of our previous commits webinars might know that for example we focused a lot on pre-departure orientation for refugee youth we also launched a youth curriculum for that, a training curriculum we also worked a lot on gender and how to strengthen for example gender elements in pre-departure orientation finally we also work on issues that link to psychosocial support across their resettlement continuum and there is actually an upcoming publication on that as well so as you will see here the work of commit spans from enhancing pre-departure orientation addressing specific need also of youth, of women systemising also community support in the receiving communities through for example building capacities of local actors or piloting mentorship schemes and then of course fostering the exchange among resettlement countries to identify also best practices and share experiences and the webinar today would serve that purpose so with many thanks of course to the European Union for supporting this commit project we are happy that it allows us to have our webinar today focusing on labour market integration of refugees before we start with our first session we're actually curious to know who is in the room I see by now 127 participants and of course we're wondering are you working on supporting refugees labour market integration and if so are you working at the European level perhaps you know you're more in the policy making perhaps you're working at the national level or perhaps you're working at the local level maybe in a reception centre directly assisting refugees so we have a small poll for you that you will see with the question addressed to you on which level do you support the labour market integration of refugees is it at European level, at national level or at local level or perhaps you're not directly engaged in this area but interested then you can tick option D so please tick one answer you have a few seconds left please click A, B, C or D so we'll get a better sense of who is there all should go well I think that soon we will also see the results of the poll yes, okay I see here that the biggest group amongst us is actually working at the local level many of you also work at the national level some at European level and some of you are not directly engaged in labour market integration but happy to hear more so good to see that we have this interesting mix of participants amongst us thank you for participating in the poll I think this week we can move to our presentation and for this first presentation we're very happy to welcome Marina Brizard from Talent Beyond Boundaries Marina Brizard is the UK director of Talent Beyond Boundaries and she will tell us a bit more about skills migration pathways for refugees what are some of the challenges there and how can we support refugees in finding jobs in Europe Marina, very pleased to have you here in our webinar over to you Hello, good morning everyone calling in from London and wishing you all a lovely day the sun is shining here and I hope spring is coming for you all so as Gertra said my name is Marina Brizard and I'm the UK director of Talent Beyond Boundaries if we can move to the next slide please fantastic, so I'm going to talk to you a little bit about displaced talent mobility which is a variation of labour market integration which really brings people out of displacement in countries where they are currently displaced into receiving countries and for TBB our broad program is now looking at the European Union and countries in Europe as the next frontier and that's why we have a very strong partnership with IOM and it is a real honour to be here today but I thought I'd start with my personal story to start tying in this idea of the importance of labour market integration but also to bring together some of the players that are on this call including states but also organisations so if we can move to the next slide so I was born in Sarajevo in Bosnia a few years before the war when the war happened my family were separated some stayed in Sarajevo my mum and brothers and I moved through different camps and I basically was raised in a refugee camp in Croatia given that I do have a Croatian origin through my dad's side of the family I think it's important to set this scene because the way that my family and I moved from that refugee setting to resettlement in Australia you might pick up the accent was through UNHCR's program and it was actually IOM that moved us to Australia so we have the IOM luggage with the IOM bags and people in the vest taking us through so it's a real honour and a privilege to be able to now talk about how we can give back and how important labour market integration is now the real story here is that my father was a telecommunications engineer my mum was a supply chain expert and within six months of arriving to Australia through really sophisticated programming in terms of language support CV support interview support soft skill preparation my dad became a telecommunications engineer at Vodafone the telephone company and my mum started cross-qualifying her economics degree in an Australian context she then started working in supply chain in her industry about two years after arrival and so the message was the way that we became independent, self-sufficient and powered was through work even though we had protection now because of this my family have always sort of said in fact my dad said when I was a child I wish that I found a job to get out of the war before I had to rely on my protection needs to get out and that really is TBB's story and so if we can move to the next slide Telampion Boundaries exists to basically lift people who are skilled and to have experience qualifications language abilities from countries like Lebanon and Jordan into destination countries where there are skill shortages so it literally is matching talent pool of people with skills with skill shortages in other countries so our mission is a world where forcibly displaced people can use their skills to move to secure futures now in doing this we've learnt a lot of lessons about the different players different principles and challenges and lessons and so that's what I'll speak to you about today but also in doing that share a little bit more about how TBB work so if we can move to the next slide now this is a perfect image to demonstrate the importance of the private sector in actually being part of this solution so I know that my colleagues at ADECO are going to talk about the role of the private sector but I just wanted to share with you this image the gentleman in the black shirt is the CEO of a software company called Iris which is a multinational multi million dollar organization they recruited people from Lebanon and Jordan with a refugee background so three Syrians to Sydney, Melbourne and Cheltenham in the UK as software engineers Andrew's approach so Andrew Walsh in the black shirt is that there are people who are struggling but are skilled I'm struggling in a different way and I have a skill shortage I just need to match them so what do I need to do to enhance my processes to make sure that I can open up opportunities to people who may not be as visible and as accessible as local or traditional talent sources now the gentleman in the purple shirt is a man by the name of Tarak so Tarak was TBB's first arrival in Australia TBB now work in Australia, Canada and the UK as I say the European Union is our next frontier we arrived as a young man who was very eager to learn through community led welcome through basic induction he started work within a number of weeks he's now flourishing at work, he's looking at a promotion pipeline in the meantime got married and genuinely owned a better car than me in Australia and so the message again the private sector can be part of this solution but this solution is not necessarily charity it's not a matter of oh there are people who we need to give jobs to it's a matter of having a competitive recruitment process to see where skilled people can fit your skill shortages and if it is done correctly it is a win-win for everyone involved so if we go to the next slide the win-win really is typified in this graph so I know there's a lot of information here but I'll just talk through it so the the centre of TBB's work is what we call a talent catalogue so it is a world first software and database that really starts to categorise to pool to understand what skills and talents candidates have in displacement so as I say our source countries are Lebanon and Jordan for the time being we are looking at expanding to other countries and regions but we now have over 25,000 people registered on the talent catalogue they represent 151 occupations almost 20% of registrants are female and almost 70% of registrants have at least a bachelor's degree so the idea behind the talent catalogue is to allow candidates to present themselves and to become visible to employers but on the other side for TBB and our partners to start matching those candidates with employers based on specific employer-led need so the talent catalogue really is such a fascinating way in which to understand what skills are out there and I mean we've placed everything from butchers management consultants from legal assistants to software engineers doctors, nurses and so on so if we think about what happens in displacement sometimes that entire societies are lifted out and have to move and so it's important to recognise that was a working liveable society and people had skills and contributions to that so we need a second chance and that's where employers play a really important part so if we can go to the next slide so these are the guiding principles of TBB's work as an organisation but there are also principles which we try to pass onto our employment partners but also other partners in our network including recruiters, refugee-serving organisations and so on partnerships and proposals we make sure that our principles are aligned now I can go into a lot of detail but I think some of these are self-explanatory so I'll touch on them very briefly so the first principle is that labour market integration displace talent mobility whether it's for people coming from overseas into a country sponsored by an employer or whether it's for people and refugees already in country has to be employer-led in that the employer must have the ability to choose the candidates that will fit their values the skill shortage that is vacant and skill sets have to align so we see a real importance in the employers having the ability to recruit candidates as they would in any other market participation so it has to be demand-driven the second principle is one of autonomy and empowerment and that is of the displace person or the refugee so when we talk about labour market integration it's not a matter of hand-holding the whole way, it's not a matter of giving necessarily too much more than you would to other skilled participants it is about levelling the playing field so identifying bespoke needs and making sure that they don't disadvantage someone candidates the autonomy the empowerment to make their own decisions to do their own courses to improve language with courses that are created for them and so on so it really is looking at how to make that person empowered to create opportunities for themselves that sort of leads on to the next aspect which is equitable access from TBB our mission is to create a pathway to create equitable access for candidates but from an employment perspective an employer perspective equitable access may be things like understanding that if you are going to hire a refugee internationally or already in country there may be extra steps that need to be taken to have them part of the workforce whether they be visa requirements, immigration requirements, whether they be pre-employment checks or whatever the case may be the message is that sometimes policies have to change in order to create equitable access so we're not talking about equal access so that everyone gets the same we're talking about equitable access where sometimes there is a bigger lift for people who are from a refugee or displaced background of course and it goes without saying needs to have refugee centered design it goes to this issue of autonomy and empowerment from TBB's perspective we have a board of alumni who guide us on our strategic decision making and make recommendations to our program to make sure that we understand who are the beneficiaries and that they are the center of our work for TBB again additionality and complementarity so we're actually creating a new pathway for people to be lifted out of displacement this does not replace it does not take the place of refugee resettlement that every country must continue to do and in fact increase it is about creating a second pathway a complementary pathway that will suit some people who are in displacement but not all so even though most people in displacement have protection needs some can go down this labor pathway with the support of employers finally there is protection as a guiding principle so understanding that candidates that come and work at your organization sometimes do not have the option of returning to their home country they may have underlying issues like torture and trauma and so on so looking at the integration to support that but also keeping in mind that candidates need to have a durable solution through immigration and so on it is a really important aspect of our work and a journey we take employers on so if we can go to the next slide so I'll just speak a little bit about what TBB do there are a lot of steps and you'll see that different partners are part of the steps but really this is to showcase what an employer approach means in the next instance we have step A and B so corporate outreach is the outreach to employers in countries so Australia, Canada, the UK and Europe a candidate outreach is getting more people onto the talent catalog from Lebanon and Jordan what then happens is an employer will say here is my skill shortage do you have any talent to match we then do a candidate identification to ensure that they are people who are in need of international protection we do a review of their CV and submit it to the employer the employer then says okay of these of these 10 CVs I'm interested in interviewing these 5 candidates the employer then goes through a competitive remote recruitment skills validation pre-employment checks and so on that TBB and partners support if the employer is then happy with the candidate they go to the job offer and inform decision making so the employer will say here is a job offer this is where we would like you to work and what we would like you to do here is your salary where you are going to be working etc that is then explained to the candidate relative to where they are going so the people that we work with for example over 90% of them are living illegally in Lebanon and Jordan which means they don't have access to bank accounts very rarely have access to work rights they work illegally and so going from earning $400 a month to getting €40,000 is a huge jump but we have to make sure that candidates understand what that means relative to their destination in some cases candidates have said no to job offers for a range of reasons and that's where the empowerment element is really important but it's a really that becomes a really commercial decision then for both the employer and the candidate and that goes to equitable access and really normalising this as a pathway so if we can go to the next step so for TBB's international program step 6 it's about visa preparation and lodgment so in all countries that we work we use visa systems that already exist and work with governments to make them more accessible so in the UK for example we use the skilled visa route so for people who are already in country that step is not necessarily required but they might be like employment and immigration checks there while the visa is being processed and decided then work on settlement planning and that's everything from pre-departure orientation that we're working with IOM on to you know identifying community led groups identifying the needs of those people moving so education job aspirations etc to make sure that once they land there is a bit of a pathway a plan for how they'll integrate it and be part of the community there's one thing to have a job that's a livelihood secured but if someone's moving with family the most empowered person then leaves that family home leaving perhaps spouse and children to integrate in their own way and so finding ways in which to support that is really important the step 8 is really again from TBB's perspective a practical thing of getting someone from A to B so getting someone from Lebanon and Jordan into their nation country again that requires health checks flights you know arrival at airports and so on which goes to step 9 and that's the arrival in initial orientation and starting to monitor what the settlement plan looks like in reality I will say that the best thing about my job at TBB is welcoming people at the airport with signs and everything so we often have employers join us on that and welcome candidates into their country it really is a highlight so finally once everything on track candidates start working the resettlement plan is rolling out people are in school learning the language etc we then have the post placement monitoring so to make sure that both the candidate and the employer are having their expectations met and they're travelling in the same direction and towards a durable solution that is mutually beneficial for everyone involved so steps I guess 6 to 10 really require employers to start thinking about partners to bring on and perhaps creating quite unique scenarios so we work for example with Accenture as an employment partner and you know we introduced Accenture to the Red Cross and said they're going to help with the settlement it's not a relationship that Accenture was used to but it is about creating this ecosystem to make refugee resettlement work it is not the employer's responsibility to make sure that every single aspect of integration is taken care of the employer needs to be a facilitator and can be as involved or not involved as they can or need to be so that's really important to understand where your limits your resources and your sort of strengths are in terms of how to integrate candidates both in the workplace which is often very strong for employers with onboarding but into the community and that's where it could be an arms length sort of decision making process so if we can go to the next slide I share this quote on almost every presentation I do so this is a reflection of he is the software engineer based in Cheltenham in the UK and the reflection that he has on being given a job to be lifted out of displacement is it's like someone is in a deep well and you throw a rope for him so what I am really passionate about is the fact that this seems like such a logical solution and it is in an environment where there is sort of possibility and realm to be part of such a dramatic humanitarian solution that last generations so it's not simply about you know donating money which is very important it's not simply about raising awareness this labour market integration on whatever level that is whatever level is available to the employer when Iris when Iris actually introduced Halif, Tariq and Dara in Australia in the UK the hashtag one Iris started trending on Twitter globally so Iris is not a huge company but it started trending because you know employees were so proud of what their company had done and as TVB as enablers of this it is really very encouraging that it's a solution that benefits not only the market in terms of a skill shortage being filled, not only the individual in their family who are moved but the community who wrap around them and actually see that through empowerment, through leveraging opportunities and systems and processes that already exist we can create an equitable solution that should be available to more people and that is really driven by employers in the private sector so I'm very passionate about it if you haven't heard already so I'll go to the next slide please and this is my last slide so really this is these are just some key learnings and some takeaways for employers for partners, for anyone who sort of works in this area to start thinking about so the first thing is a challenge against assumptions and presumptions so refugee is a word that describes a group of people but really it describes a circumstance, it doesn't describe the individual so it is really important to consider the human so it's not about a refugee program, it's a program for ex-person there is a tendency for refugee programs to be framed as graduate programs or return to work programs or something which in many cases particularly those who are in country is the right approach but for those for example who are in Lebanon and Jordan who are working, who have maintained their skills for them to go as a mechanical engineer with 20 years of experience to a graduate program is not the right fit so it really is challenging the assumptions and presumptions of what is right and including the candidate in decision making and really understanding the individual who is the beneficiary or the group of individuals who are beneficiaries to then see where the best fit is because if everything fits right it's the best outcome for everyone so the second thing is I speak very much about empowerment and skills and this being like a commercially driven requirement program which is a very important part but what's equally important is acknowledging displacement so even the most impressive candidates have experienced and been impacted by displacement so this may translate to challenges and a practical perspective like being able to present documents or even obtain passports and things like that so tweaking employment validity checks skills recognitions and so on to make sure that the skills are demonstrated but maybe not in the most standard way so an example is with software engineers instead of having to prove that you have three years of experience when you've worked illegally and no one will sign you off we've had employers develop coding tests to be satisfied that a person who sat this test and achieved a distinction is apt in coding for butchers I've literally seen videos of an animal being slaughtered to demonstrate that they have the skills of a butcher even though they don't have a certificate to show for it so looking at those impacts of displacement but then also in terms of the integration and resettlement acknowledging things like torture and trauma acknowledging that there may be time there may be a lead up time for candidates to be more comfortable to participate in group scenarios for their voice to be heard and so on so making sure that the reception, the integration orientation on boarding is acknowledging the background from which these people come the third lesson is it takes the community as I said there is no expectation that employers have to do every single piece of the puzzle and the strength really comes from being able to delegate and to share responsibilities with people who are experts in their different sort of areas so for example one partner could be a recruitment partner who helps with these you know flexible pre-employment checks once they arrive perhaps working with a community group a church group a resettlement organisation like the Red Cross to make sure that candidates are resettled English language providers, university schools and really creating an ecosystem so that the resource lift is not on the employer to make sure that someone is there to take the child to school for the first day but it is to have an oversight to say okay this is a complete end-to-end package so it really does take a collaborative community approach and then the final thing that I'll note is really philosophical but something to consider when developing programs around this and that is the disparity between time, power and responsibility at least from candidates from Middle East so in the UK if you say you're going to be somewhere at 11 you're there at 5 minutes to 11 so timing is very important whereas our candidates are much more laissez-faire approach where time is indicative not set and so training and understanding that the second thing is power dynamics so in many cases what we find is that candidates are so grateful that their employer has done this for them there becomes a power imbalance which is not necessarily aligned with values of organisations or whatever or because they've dealt with one person in the organisation they dedicate so much energy to that person, that partner that you know and so looking at power dynamics and even in the way that it's spoken so instead of using someone's first name which might be normal using a formal name for them in public is something that just needs to be adapted and then finally levels of responsibility so again people coming out of displacement have been disempowered and they don't have in many cases responsibility for the work that they do for their deadlines and things like that so making sure that these soft skills are included in pre-departure orientations but also that they nurtured pre-employment and throughout employment by the employer I think they're the sort of three pillars that need the most work so final slide I am again very pleased to have had the opportunity to share some of these thoughts with you and to see the momentum that refugee labour market integration is having in Europe is really encouraging my details are on there I'm happy to have conversations if there is a need for that but thank you very much to IOM one of our strongest partners in fact IOM and TBB together with other partners including Fragman have worked together on a proposal to open labour market mobility into Europe through the European Commission so we are hoping for a positive outcome so that we can have a more tailored approach for different countries to adapt this but for now I'll leave it there thank you all very much thank you so much Marina it's really encouraging to see your enthusiasm and indeed you know to see how a win-win solution is actually possible I encourage all participants to have a question to ask the question in the chat I see there are actually already a few questions coming in which is great if you also have a question you can use the chat and send your question to all panelists now Marina I really like the fact that you've put so much this focus on empowerment and how employment can also empower refugees and that we shouldn't look at refugees as just refugees these are people who bring skills so it's very very nice to see that and also of course I think you very well explained the guiding principle also that a labour mobility pathway to bring refugees who are for example in countries of first asylum like Lebanon and Jordan should always be complementary to resettlement it would never replace resettlement but it's something in addition to and the lessons learned that you explain the importance of the soft skills for example I think this goes actually for all labour market integration of refugees and the very useful lessons indeed for us to keep in mind and also keep in mind for the pre-departure orientation under for example resettlement programs so I see there are a few questions in the chat I would like to ask you a first question from Fasun Akok from Turkey who asks sorry I have to scroll up again because more questions coming how do you see the role of career guidance with the holistic perspective to contribute to the total well-being of the individual or the refugee in this process great question role of career guidance fantastic so Fasun lovely to hear from you hello into Turkey I will say that is also our next frontier from a source perspective so hopefully we will meet some day but in terms of in terms of career guidance really important because different careers different industries don't match from what candidates know in their home country to what it is in their destination country one typical example is nursing or healthcare so in the UK we are working on pilots to bring nurses into the UK into the NHS and one of the key things that we have as part of building those programs is developing career guidance so that people know that they might enter at a pre-qualification stage but you know if in six months they achieve a language required a language test of this and if they complete this practical test then in 12 months time they will be registered nurses being paid this so I think it is important to say okay this is what your experience was this is how it translates to the country that you're going and this is your pathway to progression again this is really an empowerment model some candidates might be happy to say look I'm happy to be a nursing assistant and just settle in this country and feel safe for a few years and then I'll move on others sort of say I want to be a registered nurse tomorrow how do I get there so I think that career guidance is really important and again it gives people focus on where they're heading not necessarily where they've been which is sometimes the case with protection outcomes so a really important thing to manage expectations for both employers and candidates before they leave but always keeps them on track with that journey so it's a great question thank you the next question Marina is actually about documents so it's possible that candidates might not have their school diplomas or other documents that are relevant to the employers with them how do you address that issue and you know does that sometimes create a problem for for example work permit requests or others absolutely it does and really that's why TBB exists so we're not a recruiter for the Middle East there's a temptation to just be like let's place as many people as possible and do all that sort of stuff for TBB all we're trying to do is open the pathways for you know barriers like not having documents to be streamlined so what we do is actually government advocacy to say okay what's your work visa permit process right you require a degree okay government instead of a degree can an employer who has done a coding test and is sure this person is going to fit the job wants to give them a contract wants to pay them can they undertake that this person has the right skill like do we have to be bound by this particular document is there a more flexible approach and so in all countries that we've dealt in Australia in the UK and in Canada we have found alternatives to documents in saying all that in many cases there are candidates who are fully documented as skilled professionals doctors nurses engineers skilled trades people who have worked hard to obtain a certificate they carry that as they carry their passport they see that as a defining sort of characteristic of their being so they have those documents and then the challenge is really converting what they've done in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria Yemen, Iraq to their destination country so the key is flexibility in approach for both employers in terms of the recruitment and pre-employment checks but also from an institutional point of view and that's where advocacy comes in but I will say advocacy is a million times easier if you have an employer in the room if an employer says look this is a person I want to hire and I'm going to pay their salary at X rate I can't find anything else it's really hard for policy makers to say oh no that can't work because they don't have a document so this is employers very often are our partners in advocacy to government because it gives awareness to government that skilled migration pathways are for the employers benefit but the employers aren't benefiting from this and so it really introduces another voice to policy makers and we think that's really important Marina we have a few more questions for you I'll perhaps combine two questions here the first one is are you only working with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan or also refugees from other countries which countries and companies are part of TBB and then the next she's how long the general leaks until someone can start working in the UK or Australia and also how are these how is this funded actually this this program or the great question so first no we do not only work with Syrians geographically make up the biggest population but we do work with Iraqis with Yemenis with Palestinians with people who are stateless so at the moment because of resources we are based only in Lebanon and Jordan but as I say our next frontiers are in Turkey in Columbia in Kenya that's our five-year plan so it was just because we started in 2016 and the talent catalogue was founded by Barack Obama State Department funding and so that's sort of where we are and it's consequential but it's by no means limited to Syrian refugees it's too talent to displace people how we funded philanthropically so we are funded by foundations by innovation funds by governments by employers by partners so our funding model is really diverse so for example we are funded by the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK to bring nurses but we also have recruitment partners in the UK where on placing someone they donate part of their placement and recruitment feedback to TVB on a quarterly basis to keep the resources going so we are fully philanthropically funded because our mission is to change the system not only recruitment so we're not here for profit it really is using the placements as a way to demonstrate obstacles and to cure them how long does the process take until someone great yeah so look typically in the UK the process takes about two to three months so an employer will put a position forward we take two to three weeks to shortlist candidates the candidate then goes through the recruitment process with the employer our record at the moment is seven interviews we've had someone go through seven separate interviews for one job and he got it fantastic but you know that recruitment process depends on the employer the visa sometimes often takes the longest amount of time because you have to collect all the documents and so on but in the UK for example we are afforded priority processing for our candidate and so processing takes you know it could be a matter of days but typically about two weeks and then mobility candidates because once they're given the offer to getting the visa is about you know a month a month and a half once they get the visa they're pretty much ready to go so it's a matter of booking flights pre departure and things like that so optimistically we say two to three months I think realistically we sort of say six months from an opportunity being presented to a candidate landing in country different in Australia I am an Australian and I cannot go back to Australia with their borders closed so in this time of Covid it's very different in Australia it takes much longer but yeah typically it is like any other international recruitment and that's where we work very hard to level the playing field Thanks Marina maybe a last point the funding on who pays for the transfer of the refugees it's important also to highlight that employers here have a key role and employers are of course also expected to pay is TBB as well as IOM we operate according to the employer pays principle it should by no means be the refugee who's expected to pay for the cost of the recruitment or the transfer Marina I see we have to move on looking on time but that was the last question if you could just answer in one second the last question what are the most common skills or fields of work offered and requested on the platform Yeah thank you so much Gertra for making that point about employers paying we expect employers to pay what they would for international recruitment plus some resettlement so you know it is the beneficiary as well as the the beneficiary being the employer what skills there are 151 occupations on the talent catalog literally ranging from anthropologists to surgeons so there is no I mean the most transferable skills are technical skills so data analysts software engineers mechanical civil engineers and so on they're the most transferable skills but we are working as I say with healthcare with teachers with skills trades people and so on so really there is an entire society an entire talent pool that is ready to go Okay great very promising and perhaps we have some employers on the call who are interested in some of the talents so you have Marina's contact details will also be shared after the webinar thank you so much Marina before we move on to our next presentation we will have another poll for you Marvin could you put on the poll question so the question is what is according to you the most important enabler for labour market integration of refugees is it language and other forms of training synergies with NGOs and the private sector entrepreneurship support or simply funding for labour market integration initiatives please stick your choice what do you think is the most important enabler for labour market integration of refugees you have four options and you can pick one of them you have a bit more time for US participants to fill out the poll and then I think we'll soon see the answers to the question okay I think our time is up and here are the results so actually it seems that most participants believe that language learning and training is an important enabler for labour market integration synergies with NGOs and the private sector also comes on the second place entrepreneurship support was indicated by some of you and funding as well so definitely the high focus on the training the language learning but also synergies with NGOs and private sector and indeed talking about private sector they play a key role in labour market integration of refugees and we're very happy to have with us both Francesco Reales Secretary General and Monia the scientific coordinator international projects of the ADECO foundation for equal opportunities and they'll tell us a bit more about the role of the private sector and how to render labour market more inclusive Francesco welcome and over to you so good morning and thanks for your invitation we are very happy to be here today with IOM and happy to share our experience and best practices on labour market integration of refugee and asylum seekers but first of all we speak about human beings and not only legal status but people with a known story related people with lots of experiences and we have heard the incredible experience and story from Marina Brizard before and they bring culture and new skills to organization and value to organization I will introduce first our foundation we have a presentation some slide thanks and then I will end over to Monia Dardi the project manager who is a scientific coordinator for international projects for a focus on our approach our methodology and best practices in foster refugees and resettled refugees integration in the labour market so if we can move to the next slide let me introduce our foundation ADECO foundation in Italy is a corporate foundation a private independent foundation supported by one of the most successful group leaders in search and selection training and talent solutions with a wide range of brands and activities all over the world and we have foundation in Italy, in US Spain, France, Germany and in the headquarter of ADECO in Zurich our mission is to connect individuals and organizations to foster accessibility and inclusion in the workplace best practices and inspiring real social change you see the purpose of the ADECO group making the future work for everyone and we as foundation are the everyone so we make this possible next slide please we work on diversity inclusion so we we were born in 2001 so 2021 is our university anniversary 20 years of inclusion 20 years of experiences and projects and 20 years of networks because the success of our action and our project is strictly connected to our approach our multi stakeholder approach where organization and private sector public and private together profit and no profit play a fundamental role in our approach to diversity and inclusion the main objective of the foundation is to support disadvantaged people so you see our target group first of all the answer people with disability disadvantaged women, refugees and asylum seekers we are proudly partner in Italy of UNHCR IOM we develop a project with Gepi Morgan Chase Foundation and then we are working a lot on new form of poverty after the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market so if we go to the next slide it's important to understand how inclusion is a key factor of sustainability so we have a new challenge for the future for the following month to face crisis related to the pandemic on the labor market and in particular young people and women young people and women are the most impacted targets by COVID-19 in terms of loss of opportunities so making the future work for everyone is now a real social priority and the future at work will be focused on skilling every skill in people leaving no one behind so the role of the private sector will be fundamental for this thanks again for your attention and happy to introduce you Monia Dardi Monia the floor is yours Thank you very much Francesco and thank you to everyone for being here and also good morning or good evening or good afternoon also from the website go to the next please thank you so this is our design approach our methodology and multidisciplinary our networking counter on different MPO and GEO that haven't charged people with disadvantage and obviously migrant refugees and asylum seekers and we implemented the program that is called system approach it's kind of hybridization of public and private partnerships we strongly believe in this kind of hybridization from one hand we work with public service we use quality and use the tools from HR experience also for vocational guidance guidance and training section because the beneficiaries have to be ready for an active job research and be aware about employability and from other plans we co-plan it's important outreach session about the inclusion of the employee so we help enterprise to enhance the value of different people different talent and different background so the key words are employability, awareness diversity and inclusion next, thanks so what we know from the private sector the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic it's really high imagine the Italian DPD fell by 5% nearly 5% and what we know that the scenario is completely changed from megatrends in the labor market we know that for example the index of job political and economic concern is tripled and every enterprises as Francesco said before talk about the needs of hapskilling and rescilling the workforce and also the increasing of G economic and platform are an evidence is an arrogance but human sanctity remain really important 58% are willing to really pay the enterprise for more personalized products so we cannot be replaced by robots so the scenario is completely different what are our answers go to the next one thank you the key words that we think we are so important because give us new opportunity new challenge and new hopes so the first one is employability transformative resilience generative community based welfare and diversity inclusion mindset next one thanks first of all employability you know that very well is the new priority we talk about lifelong employability that embedding different kind of level level of action completely different employability means a set of achievement skills understanding person and attributes in order to gain employment and this is something they chose on occupation which benefits themselves the workforce the community and the economy so employability means self-esteem self-confidence self-efficient it's a reflection continuous and evaluation so in the pictures you can see our beneficiaries during peer-to-peer session and vocational guidance and in profiling but also using the employability tool it's new it's a profiling tool but also it's really good for detecting the employability so this is the first one we have to work for the long life employability next thanks the second keyword that we want to show you it's the Transformers in Brazilians that is coming as an important keyword coming from JRC and that means using our challenge our stress our catapult us forward so the Transformers in Brazilians describe a living system capacity to transform itself in response to change in condition of destruction but these are two pictures Abril and Saeed two different kind of story Abril was in store market during the heaving of the first lockdown in Rome and he has to fade the in front of the scenario the assault and he hears his previous experience but also soft and deep skills and to fade this moment and careful recognizes kind of skills this condition that you have to face this crisis and decide to stop the internship and to start a new problem of career for him and now as a store manager and the other story it's coming from Saeed arriving in the south of Italy you know it's the most rate of employment in Europe Calabria for example one of the south of region and it reached the opportunity to work in the restaurant but he has the IT bachelor degree so every day he was just catching the boss and taking one hour to go to the restaurant but he has no chance to be high so we went together with the with the ampule and for an inclusion path with also the geographical mobility from south of north and the enterprise with connects from higher him designed to give an opportunity for the soft skills not skills and for the deep skills because he show resilience he has to face every problem from the first day of arriving in the week so what it's important is that transform resilience means the opportunity to turn breakdown into breakthrough the third key words it's community based generative community based warfare this is the picture of FAMARA of Uniclo and we look at it in the inclusion path and during the covid now he lives with senior people and helped them with buying medicine and also food shopping so this is an example of new form of housing in Milan it's not so easy to find an housing or a new house also in sharing and this is a very good example of community socialization but also new form of general impact next thanks this is the fourth key words diversity inclusion mindset for us winter can charge nearly 9000 people and 5000 inclusion but we have a lot of experience in inclusion but also in diversity in inclusive mindset for and this is an example is a deliverable is a guidelines for the inclusion path for the enterprises but from the point of view of refugee we work together because this is really important that the guidelines it's written with the voice of refugee and as I'm a second person so using the community based approach next please so we went to also to finish with two best practice because we are the implementing pattern for UNECR in Italy and there's a very great inclusion power that is called welcome working for refugee integration that is social level and we have a lot of enterprises that on board of this project we have just implemented five project and we have this pattern for 2017 and what this is the best practice also for the networking of private and public because we were together with UNECR the public sector municipality but also interior minister and all the system of Italy the hotspot and the enterprise for the beginning so really an hybridization of public and private areas so the highlights that we want to share is employability modeling housing geographical mobility but also capacity building for the operators because we know very well what is the corporate partnership and we can work together also with the operator that are the first person that meet and having charged the migrants the asylum seeker of the refugee this is the private public networking next the other best practice that I really want to show with you is about UNECR UNECR opened the first flagship in Milan and the one to hire from the beginning migrant refugee but also people with disability in the same time we organized two session about diversity for all the manager so diversity as a DNI from the beginning because now the refugee but also people with disability have career but also change from the beginning the climate but also the value of the organization at the end next thanks at the end we just share MPO NGO partners and big to survival project because we are a key player in the labor market and strong to believe that diverse talent in everyone it's really important so hopefully to help plan your project with other stakeholders but we want to say that inclusion is an imperative it's not a choice and diversity it's about thinking and acting inclusively so best practice behind Congress so thank you very much we are at your disposal thanks so much it was extremely interesting a very interesting to hear a decos approach again participants if you have any questions I see some are already coming in please use the chat but what I really liked in your presentation was also this focus you place diversity and inclusive mindset and the added value that diversity brings to employers to companies you say that diversity and inclusive it's thinking and acting I really like that and I also understand that you even organize you know recessions to companies on questions like diversity and inclusion could you maybe say a little bit more about how that goes because that I find it really interesting and at the same time I will already also convey some questions from our participants there is an in use skills profile tool for third country nationals do you have any experience with that and is it a tool that you use so if you can already answer these questions that would be great yeah thank you the first one about the diversity inclusion arts session I think it's really important because it's our way to achieve the goals that the organization have to be more inclusive but also more aware about all kind of diversity when we cope together with that I can plan this only about the ethnic diversity but all kind of primary diversity so gender age health condition different kind of background so for us it's really an imperative and it's also very useful theory but also practice so we're together for workshop because you know in empathy with the other it could be very wonderful so for example an example could be in you know library it's a social experiment about the empathy but we can also transfer in a way for our session in in enterprises with all kind of prejudiced because when we meet somebody who's different with the narrative approach could really fall down of the prejudice but we have a lot of different experience also in theater and when we co-plan together the outreach session it's really important that the person it's also the key player of the diversity for example we use a lot but also storytelling from refugee that have something to you know to tell to the other this is our experience very very different it's great it's quite different about the utu yes we know very well we use in another European project it's called M it's for migrants so we used for more than 80 beneficiaries so it's really good for profiling but not for detecting the employability it's something different because in employability you have to just already have an action plan and also try to understand especially what kind of job title are requested for the labor market and it's something that you can use in partnership with the enterprise and for the beginning so it's really good for profiling not for the employability but for our experience thank you so much indeed I understand you use the EU skills profiling tool as a first step for profiling the skills but then of course the next step working on the employability possibly job matching this goes a bit further indeed we'll share with participants also in the chat the link to this EU skills profiling tool in case you are not aware of it it's a tool developed by the European Commission and that allows to create a skills profile of a refugee or a migrant so it's also actually referenced in the guidelines that we'll present also today to you on the labor market integration so thank you so much to colleagues from the DECO foundations I see sorry there is another question that just came in if you don't mind I will still take that question with you before we move on to the next session how do you go about establishing partnerships with private enterprises I think it is inbuilt also in of course you as a DECO foundation you have established partnerships I assume with many enterprises could you say more about that yeah but it's quite easy actually we have to construct a board with UNSCR but also we stand but also a lot of enterprise in this moment really call us or ask to plan a diversity inclusion program because now I think diversity inclusion is coming in this mainstreaming and you know there are a lot of research that confirm this that you have a lot of benefits if you give an answer as the value to diversity program so I think this is the time to change something also in the private sector so for us it's not it's quite easy because really in this time we yeah no days we just say that a lot of enterprise want to change something also for the headquarters or for our maybe yes coming from US or from Australia that are more in advance in comparison with Italy but yes within something it's really changing so okay thank you so much Monia and Francesco and again we'll share with everyone of course also the great presentations after the webinar also asking kindly my colleague to put in the link to the EU skills profile tool in the chat so that all of you can also have a look at that I think we're now going to have a last poll a last set of questions to you as participants what do you think are the biggest challenge for the integration of refugees in the labour market is it matching refugee skills with local job opportunities recognition of qualifications and previous experience discrimination and xenophobia or legal and administrative barriers what do you think are the biggest challenges let us know what do you think of course some of our presenters already mentioned some but we're also eager to hear from you the participants what do you perceive as being the biggest challenges so you have a bit more time please fill in our poll okay time is up let's see the answers okay it's a bit mixed I see here but definitely a lot of people looked at recognition of qualifications as being a key challenge more than any of the others so indeed understandably it is not easy but this is also work in progress we know it's also something that the commission is looking into so hopefully some of these challenges can be addressed I think we are now ready to move on to the last part of our webinar and in this part we are going to launch the guidelines that we have produced the newest commit publication and these are practical guidelines to support the labour market integration of refugees in the EU to us produce together a DECO foundation as part of the commit project and these are guidelines for practitioners meaning anyone who works with resettled refugees could be pre-departure orientation trainings could be maybe actors working in reception centres or volunteer mentors basically we hope these guidelines will give practical advice to anyone who is supporting resettled refugees in the process of finding a job so I'm happy to hand over to Anna Justinyana Anna is the project manager of the commit project and will explain to us what these guidelines are about Anna, over to you Thank you Gantra and thank you all participants for being so numerous today and thank you very much for the previous presenters who gave us a very broad picture of the labour market integration the challenges embedded and the opportunities that are also there so as Gantra was saying we are here today also to present one of the last tools developed by the commit project as she said this is a joint venture between DECO and IOM I'm sure you will soon receive in the chat the address where you can look at the guidelines for directly there is an English version so far but very soon you will also find a Croatian version an Italian version a Portuguese and a Spanish version so this tool kit is meant to be a very very concrete tool at disposal of the practitioner as Gantra was saying that from pre departure to post arrival work hand in hand with resettled refugees what are we talking about so we have this guidelines that is divided into two main sections the first section that is giving a more rather view of resettlement and labour market integration of resettled refugees in Europe looking mainly at the many barriers that they find and the adressees of these guidelines are indeed practitioners, PDO trainers, social workers community mentors public and private service providers have been mentioned many times this morning and why have we decided to focus on this aspect we all know that for refugees just as for anyone else to get a job is a fundamental part of our life and to find a job that matches to the extent possible once profiling is even more difficult we know this is not easy more so for refugees who encounter a huge number of barriers barriers of different natures that are also interlinked between them institutional or contextual difficult policies to abide by complex administrative procedures to follow the structure of the labour market in the resettlement countries itself so there are a number of contextual barriers that refugees have to encounter also social barriers, the ones that were mentioned earlier perhaps employers are not ready to employ diverse to embed diversity into their labour market there are also individual issues and problems for instance lack of language or lack of the skills that match with the jobs available in a given labour market so how have we built this guidelines and how these guidelines are meant to reach their objective well in practice you will see that the different discussions that we heard this morning are somehow summarised in these guidelines what they aim at is to provide practical support to resettle refugees to define and implement their employment objectives to identify the skills but also to match their skills with the available options in a given labour market and to set up and implement the job seeking strategy labour market integration support should be provided throughout the different phases of the resettlement continuum starting from pre-departure as Marina explained to us there is a lot to do a pre-departure phase helping refugees to develop realistic expectations or what they can expect when they arrive in the country of resettlement through pre-departure skill profiling as many participants have also been raising the attention on apart from the use skill profiling too we can also perhaps share with you the experience of the linked project I'm sure you will find at the same address of our regional office this instrument through language training before departure to east transition and facilitate labour market integration integration and all of this pre-departure support will have to be linked with post arrival stage this is in fact the main principle of the permit project linking pre-departure and post arrival support so that this is clearly supporting the resettlement continuum but it's also linking with the integration continuum to make possible better integration prospects so to link with the post arrival stage when a number of support services provided both by public and private actors will be available to refugees from language training to vocational training and support by community mentors once again the role of the community I think has been underlined with times by the presentation earlier this morning so from the discussion today it clearly appears that refugees integration can only be the result of a multi-layered approach international, national local level but also with private networking so we all have a role to play to make integration of resettled refugees possible and I think today's experience is a good example of this path thank you thank you so much Anna and indeed you will also find now in the chat the link to this new publication this new guideline so please do have a look at the publication you will find a lot of information of some practical tools that exist and that can help you in supporting refugees labour market integration such as the skills profile tool which is now also having the link in the chat so we hope that this webinar was interesting it was definitely interesting for me I really enjoyed the presentations the questions the interactions so a very warm thank you to all the presenters Marina from TBB Monia Francesco from ADECO Anna from IOM great presentations I see also some participants ask if they can receive the slides yes you will receive after the webinar an email from us with the presentations and also the link to the publication so I see it's time for us to close now before I do I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we will also soon be holding the commit final event because the commit project will be coming to an end but there's still a lot that we want to share with you in the final event so all of you will also receive an invitation for the commit final event which will take place on the 29th of April so please do save the date and we hope to see all of you again in the commit final event on the 29th of April thank you very much everyone and enjoy the rest of this very nice and sunny day see you soon and goodbye