REN Refugee Employment Network

Can your business provide apprenticeships for Refugee Women? Join our network member Routes and Workwhile on 3 April if you are an employer that can offer or create apprenticeship opportunities for Refugee Talent. 📢 Routes into Employment launch event 📅 Date: Thursday 3 April 2025 ⏰ Time: 11am-1pm 📍 Venue: Upstairs event space at Halifax flagship branch, 132 New Oxford St, WC1A 1HL 🙋 Event aimed at employers likely to have, or able to create, apprenticeship vacancies between June and October 2025 🌐 Follow the link to book your place https://lnkd.in/eHEJDGMU

This is fantastic to see! 👏 We love seeing talented individuals like Mulugeta secure meaningful employment. Huge congratulations to him and well done to Team Elmtree Garden Contractors Ltd for your commitment to supporting refugees into work. Two hires following our Bristol Refugee Jobs Fair in January. A powerful reminder that opportunity and connection rebuilds careers and lives! #NewBeginnings #RefugeeEmployment

🌍 Happy International Women’s Day! This year’s theme, “Accelerate Action,” is a powerful call to drive real progress in gender equality, not just in words, but through concrete, systemic change. If we are serious about supporting refugee women, collaboration is key. At REN Refugee Employment Network, we're working together with businesses, employers, refugee talent, refugee organisations, local authorities and policy makers on practical solutions that work to remove barriers and develop inclusive policies that improve employment outcomes for refugee women. Refugee women face systemic and cultural barriers, with employment rates as low as 20-30%, despite many holding qualifications and extensive experience. Their skills too often go unrecognised simply because they were gained outside the UK. If we are serious about change, collaboration is key. At REN, we advocate for practical solutions that create lasting impact: ✅ Inclusive Hiring & Workplace Cultures – More flexible, part-time, and remote roles and workplaces, as well as recognition of international qualifications and work experience ✅ Tailored Support – Mentoring, skills development and childcare provision ✅ Policy Change – Removing systemic barriers that keep refugee women out of the workforce When refugee women thrive, entire communities and economies thrive. Today, let’s go beyond celebration, let’s commit to action. Who’s with us? #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2025 #AccelerateAction #RefugeeWomen #GenderEquity #InclusiveWorkplaces #EmploymentForAll

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Want to join our Glasgow Refugee Job Fair this spring? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 If you are a business or employer and would like to book a space at our event, we’d love to hear from you. This is a great opportunity to promote your organisation, share live vacancies, meet refugee talent looking for work, and learn about the wealth of skills and experience they bring to the Scottish job market. 📅 WHEN: 11am – 2pm on Thursday, 20 March 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 WHERE: Glasgow City Chambers, 82 George Square, G2 1DU We're proud to be part of the organising partnership with Scottish Refugee Council Breaking Barriers, Bridges Programmes, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), GlasgowF Futures (with Glasgow City Council and Business Glasgow), and Skills Development Scotland. We would love to see many of our network there! If you would like to book a stall, please register your interest here: https://lnkd.in/emGCFJFY

📢 We’re Hiring: Join REN as Our New Network Coordinator! We’re excited to announce an opportunity to join the Refugee Employment Network as a Network Coordinator, a role designed to strengthen our mission as a national network dedicated to collaborative, cross-sector efforts to advance refugee employment across the UK. 📝 Key Details: 🔹 Title: Network Coordinator 🔹 Salary: £32,000 (pro-rata for part time/4 days) 🔹 Contract: 1-year fixed term (potential to extend) 🔹 Working hours: Full-time or part-time (flexible arrangements available) 🔹 Location: Remote/Home working (monthly travel required for events) 🔹 Benefits: 30 days leave, bank holidays, volunteer days, pension, Employee Assistance Programme ✨ Valuing Experts by Experience: We welcome applications from individuals who are experts by experience, particularly refugees, forcibly displaced people, and migrants with lived experience navigating the UK asylum or immigration system. REN is a committed member of the Experts by Experience Employment Initiative, who will be offering independent, confidential mentoring and support to refugees and migrants applying for this role. Full details on how to access these resources can be found in the Job Description. 📅 Important Dates: 🔹 Info Session: Join us for a session this Thursday 20 Feb, 9:30-10:00 am to learn more about REN and the role. 🔹 Application Deadline: 5pm, Sunday 2 March 🔹 Interview dates: 11/12 March and 18 March This role is a great fit for someone with experience or transferable skills in building and nurturing relationships, event planning, project coordination, administration, communications, and a passion for refugee rights. Please share and tag anyone in your network who may be interested! 🔗 Learn more and apply today: https://lnkd.in/emgfVyjE

A highlight of my working year - every year - is interviewing CEOs for our PwC UK #CEOSurvey. This year we’ve interviewed more CEOs than ever, from a fascinating mix of organisations, enabling us to explore more diverse views and perspectives on issues highlighted by the survey. For example, two conversations I've had this year provided really powerful - and often very moving - perspectives on the UK's labour force and skills shortages. Jenny Walton is CEO of REN Refugee Employment Network, and we discussed the highly-skilled workers who have come to the UK to find safety and a new life: from Ukrainian accountants to cyber security experts from Afghanistan. Much is made of skills shortages in the UK, but as Jenny explains, few businesses have a plan for employing the highly-skilled refugee talent available. You can read Jenny's full interview here:  https://lnkd.in/eBak9Fjm Samantha Graham is CEO of Clean Sheet UK. Clean Sheet helps people with convictions get back into employment, often via vocational training in in-demand areas such as plastering and bricklaying. As well as helping to improve lives and introduce new talent into the workforce, Samantha explains how getting people with convictions into work creates wider societal benefits by dramatically reducing reoffending. Please do read her interview here:   https://lnkd.in/eh4bJG8F I found both of these interviews hugely thought-provoking and I hope others do too.

Our CEO, Jenny Walton, has been interviewed by PwC UK as part of its latest CEO Survey. Jenny explains why business leaders may be missing out on an untapped, highly-skilled talent pool, and talks about the time and collaboration needed to create systemic change. Recruiting Refugee talent: “It just isn't on people’s radar, until they find out what kind of talent they can access.” Read the full interview here: https://pwc.to/3Q4O3IK   #CEOSurvey

Yesterday we were in Bristol for the Refugee Job Fair, which brought together over 200 job seekers and 30 employers, connecting, sharing opportunities, and offering a warm welcome. We’re proud to collaborate with local and regional partners to organise Refugee Job Fairs in cities across the UK. Seeing the impact of months of planning come to life in Bristol was a joy, made possible by the brilliant efforts of ACH Refugee Integration Services Provider 🧡 , Bristol City Council, Bristol Refugee Rights, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, and World Jewish Relief. The talent and resilience of refugee job seekers continue to inspire us. Yesterday, we met lawyers, surgeons, phlebotomists, data analysts, electricians, tailors, and construction workers. The range of skills and professions is vast, but the shared ambition is the same: to rebuild careers and get back to work. It was fantastic to welcome members of the REN Refugee Employment Network and expand partnerships in the South West, including Sam Ward from Southern Co-op, Network Rail, GoLandscape, Elmtree Garden Contractors Ltd, City of Bristol College, Andrew Banfield and Aman Sidhu from Comensura, Scott O., 1625 Independent People, Galliford Try, and Trinity Community Arts. A huge thank you to the Lord Mayor of Bristol for joining us and making it clear: "Refugees are Welcome" in Bristol. 📢 Watch this space for updates on the Glasgow Refugee Job Fair in March!

GoLandscape is excited to be in Bristol today, with Elmtree Garden Contractors Ltd and Paul Lynch at the REN Refugee Employment Network 🌱🌍 Together, we're proving that the landscaping industry is open to all 🌿✨ #Allyship 

We welcome the Home Office's decision to trial extending the move-on period for refugees from 28 to 56 days. This important step will help prevent homelessness and labour exploitation by giving refugees more time to secure housing, access benefits, and find employment. After often waiting an average of 39 weeks for their asylum claims to be processed, refugees previously had only 28 days before being evicted from asylum accommodation. This short window pushed many into low-paid, unsuitable jobs, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and underemployment. Although refugees have the right to work, barriers like non-recognition of qualifications, lack of UK work experience, language and cultural challenges, and discrimination further hinder their ability to find meaningful employment. Women, in particular, face even greater challenges. By extending the move-on period to 56 days, refugees are given a more reasonable chance to rebuild their lives. We hope this trial becomes permanent, as longer support is key to preventing homelessness, labour exploitation, and ensuring successful integration.  At REN, we are committed to collaborative and cross-sector working to ensure refugees have equitable access to employment that matches their skills, while also supporting employers to tap into this skilled talent pool across the UK. Great work by Refugee Council and other organisations in advocating for this change!