| Path: Home > Research > Asylum Seekers and Refugees > News |
Asylum Seekers and Refugees News
|
Headline (Click on headline for full story) |
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
Welcome To Your Library project
The Welcome To Your Library project has developed an e-mail list with The Network (www.seapn.org.uk) , a project partner. The list is of relevance and interest to anyone working in or with public libraries and refugee communities and already has over 120 subscribers from all over the country. The list is a means to:
 | develop awareness of relevant resources and policy developments; |
| publicise relevant courses, events and publications; |
| ask questions, request help or provide information on relevant practice issues. |
To sign up just send an e-mail to either helen.carpenter@llda.org.uk or john@nadder.org.uk marked WTYL e-list in the subject line.
______________________________
Progress GB Evaluation - Invitation to tender
Click here for full details on the invitation to tender (Word file)
______________________________
"Towards an Employment Strategy for Asylum Seekers" conference findings
At the "Towards an Employment Strategy for Asylum Seekers conference" ASSET UK showcased and discussed the implications of their work and engaged in discussions around asylum seekers and employment. Further information about this conference and its findings can be found at http://www.asset-uk.org.uk/public/conference%20final.pdf
______________________________
NIACE response to National Refugee Integration Strategy
The Home Office consultation paper Integration Matters: A national strategy for refugee integration outlines the second national strategy for refugee integration in England. It sets out to offer an analysis of the concept of integration and the ways in which central and local government, the voluntary sector and the private sector can promote it. It brings together the major developments since the publication of the first strategy: the report of the Life in the UK Advisory Group, the development of the National Asylum Support Service’s accommodation strategy for asylum seekers, and the proposals for a tailored programme to help new refugees produce Personal Integration Plans.
NIACE welcomes the publication of a Strategy that confirms the government’s commitment to providing refuge for those fleeing harsh treatment, violence and suffering, and acknowledges the wide range of experiences and skills that refugees bring with them and the potential contribution that they have to make to our communities. We would like to see politicians and key public figures use this positive tone in public more widely and more often. We believe that the government’s often-negative media statements about asylum seekers have had a direct impact both on the media’s portrayal of asylum seekers and refugees and on the attitudes of the British public.
Click here to read the Full NIACE Response
______________________________
Plugging the Gap - helping migrants and refugees find jobs
In a bid to help refugees into work and plug the widening UK skills gap, a £4 million European project has been awarded to the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). Working in partnership with organisations including Birmingham University, Exeter CVS, Midland Refugee Council, the North East Consortia for Asylum and Refugee Support, the North of England Refugee Service and Ufi/learndirect, the NIACE-led Progress-GB Partnership will pilot and develop new approaches to helping refugees and migrants make progress in the work place.
Progress-GB will work with both employers who are seeking to fill vacancies; and with refugees and migrants who are seeking to develop their vocational skills. It will involve work place learning for those already in employment, including opportunities for those wanting to obtain qualifications for skills gained overseas and improve their English. It will also help employers meet skills shortages by recruiting skilled staff from refugee communities.
Sue Waddington, Progress-GB Project Leader, said, “Through our work with a previous European funded EQUAL project where NIACE carried out skills audits with asylum seekers, we discovered that many of them had skills which were in short supply in this country. But we also found that new arrivals were either unable to gain employment or the jobs they found were well below their skills-capability. Since then we have been working with asylum seekers, across the East Midlands, to assist them in developing their skills so that they are better able to seek and gain employment if they are given permission to remain in the UK.”
She continued, “We are absolutely delighted to have been successful in our bid for this European grant under the EQUAL initiative. We know that refugees are often highly skilled and highly motivated, but can find it very difficult to make progress in the UK work-place. These new resources mean that we will be able to develop new approaches to benefit both employers and refugees across the UK, by helping refugees into jobs, predominately where there is a current shortage of skilled workers.”
| Source: NIACE press release "Plugging the Gap" (PDF file), released on 24/09/2004 |
______________________________
Access to Work Scheme for Refugee Teachers
Refugees into Jobs in partnership with the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow and Hounslow are offering overseas qualified refugee teachers who have been living in the UK, for one year or more and have permission to work, an exciting new opportunity to train in a London Secondary school. This new pilot Access to Work Scheme for Refugee Teachers aims to improve the employability of refugee teachers into British schools by developing their knowledge of the education system in England and Wales through practical classroom experience and theory-led taught sessions.
The Scheme will run full time from October to mid July 2005, where it is hoped that upon completion trainees will have gained enough experience and confidence to apply for teaching posts. The course will comprise of work placements in the classroom together with English language support and taught theory sessions with an Education Consultant. The programme will be demanding, structured to assist the career progression of only determined and talented secondary school teachers with a strong desire to return to teaching. Applicants must reside in or be able to travel to the North-West and West London Area. A training allowance of up to £4,000 will be available for each trainee.
For more information and an application form please send an
e-mail to:
Demessew.Shiferawh@brent.gov.uk
Or write to: Demessew Shiferaw (ref:ATW), Refugees into Jobs, 3-7 Lincoln
Parade, Preston Road, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 8UA, Telephone: 020 8908 4433,
Closing date: Thursday 30th September 2004.
______________________________
Lord Mayor set to meet Refugee Volunteers
People who have helped refugees fleeing persecution abroad settle in Leicestershire have been invited to meet the Lord Mayor of Leicester.
Coun Piara Singh Clair will be meeting volunteers and workers who have given their time to helping asylum seekers find jobs in their new home.
The meeting, at Leicester Town Hall on Wednesday 22 September, is in honour of groups such as city-based adult learning organisation the NIACE.
Also attending will be representatives of the Danish Red Cross and the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (Nicem).
All three groups are involved in Asset-UK - offering jobs and training to asylum seekers and providing work placements and college courses to help them develop their work skills.
Coun Singh Clair said: "I am very much looking forward to meeting NIACE, the Danish Red Cross and the Northern Ireland Council of Ethnic Minorities. The work that Asset-UK does really benefits Leicester and, by supporting asylum seekers to realise their potential and contribute to their new home, helps them to feel more a part of our community."
The project started in 2001, when NIACe joined with the Refugee Council to successfully apply for European Union funding aimed at combating discrimination in the work place.
Coun Sue Waddington, Niace European development officer, said: "In this way the asylum seekers are able to make a contribution to the community and develop their skills and knowledge of working in the UK. In all, 80 per cent of asylum seekers take up the placements and there have been some notable successes."
___________________________________
