Australia’s untapped talents

Government employment services need to cultivate mainstream business contacts that refugees with professional skills can access. This requires innovative approaches and not staunchly relying on traditional and outdated service models that are currently in existence.

The outstanding example of such forward thinking can be found within community groups and grassroots organisations. The Given the Chance program, designed by Jill Carr and run by the Ecumenical Migration Centre is a shining example of how refugees can be linked in with the mainstream. Using her Churchill Scholarship, Carr researched the world’s best overseas settlement programs to find the model adopted here.

Through partnering refugees with mentors from business, community and government sectors, Given the Chance demonstrates how a small, innovative program can empower refugees and the whole community, who are reciprocally given the opportunity to learn more about their new arrivals.

The many Africans who participated in this program gained training and permanent employment in fields they would never have accessed if they followed the standard route and joined a job network agency.

The achievement of Given the Chance illustrates what can be achieved with a small budget and the big belief that refugees can give something valuable back to the country that has embraced them. It also exposes the lack of vision of handsomely-funded job agencies which simply pump refugees through to low skill, dead-end jobs despite their qualifications and their ambitions to achieve more.

We should all strive to ensure no defined group is “written-off” or “down” due to their skin colour or ethnic background. The benefits of programs that link future employees with the broader community are limitless, not only to Australia’s prospering economy but to the Janes of our country as well.