Changing lives and workplaces through skilled refugee migration
Widespread global conflict in recent years has seen families being displaced from many parts of the world. At the same time, Australia is facing a skills shortage in the workforce.
Global recruitment firm Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) is creatively and compassionately solving both problems - helping displaced refugees from war-torn countries to find new beginnings in Australia while finding highly skilled staff to fill vacancies in Australia’s IT sector.
South Australian eCommerce company Aligent has been proactive and one of the first companies in South Australia to recruit and sponsor the migration of skilled refugees through the Skilled Refugee Pilot Program. TBB is collaborating with the Australian Government to not only help Australian companies fill their skills shortage, but also to help skilled refugees to settle in Australia.
Through this program, Aligent was able to search the TBB online job boards when recruiting, enabling us to connect with skilled refugees and displaced people.
Jonathan Day
,Managing Director
-at Aligent
Aligent Managing Director, Jonathan Day said “COVID and closed borders saw growth in demand for skilled specialised software and IT workers, we recruited in Adelaide and invested significantly in local talent but also needed to look elsewhere to meet the demand of Australian businesses,”
“TBB connects employers around the world with refugees who are seeking work. Australian companies like ours, which require specialised skills, are now able to connect with displaced individuals who are looking for employment opportunities, hoping to relocate for work, rebuild their lives, and become valuable members of a new community in a different country.
“The suggestion that refugees place an excessive financial burden on a country by draining public resources is inaccurate, in fact their contributions add great value economically and socially to the wider community, and to our organisation directly.”
Multicultural Communities Council of SA Inc Chief Executive Helena Kyriazopoulos said: “Endorsed Australian employers are now able to tap into this overlooked talent pool of skilled professionals and tradespeople, and utilise this Labour Agreement to sponsor skilled refugees to work in their businesses.”
“This provides a safe migration pathway for thousands of refugees and displaced people over the coming years and assists companies around Australia struggling with a severe talent crunch,” she said.
The scheme assists potential employers and refugees to work together to address the challenges of not having any documentation and proof of work experience as they fled their country since employers can directly assess the skills and vouch for the candidate’s capability
Jonathan Day
Through the program Aligent have recruited several employees, including software engineer Sarya who fled Syria in 2012 as a refugee, they offered her not only a job but supported the relocation of her immediate family.
“The scheme assists potential employers and refugees to work together to address the challenges of not having any documentation and proof of work experience as they fled their country since employers can directly assess the skills and vouch for the candidate’s capability” Mr Day said.
“Businesses have direct access to skilled candidates who would be excluded from the traditional migration pathways and visas due to inaccessible documentation, but we can be confident in their skills and work experience,” he said.
“Candidates showcase their skills through performing skills tests and interviewing for high-quality roles. We were blown away by the quality of the candidates and have now hired five engineers through the pilot program,” he said
“There is a huge demand from business to trade online and IT staffing has had a hit with closed borders for skilled independent migrants and less skilled graduates.”
“Sarya was selected after a competitive round of online interviews. She has a Bachelor of Information Technology and Engineering from Damascus University and was first introduced to our business in 2020.”
Since 2012 when she fled Syria with her family, Sarya had been living in Amman, Jordan, with her husband, 19-year-old son and 3-year-old twins in limbo with no legal working status, worried that they would be forced back to Syria
A broad range of companies are now able to access the pilot program to hire skilled Syrian, Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, who are displaced due to conflicts in their countries.
“Our local staff are highly supportive of this program that enables us to improve the lives of vulnerable people, and the initiative is a key part of our broader focus on community and inclusion. This is one more example of how diversity and social contribution makes our business stronger and better suited to the needs and mandates of the modern working environment.” Mr Day said.
Mrs Kyriazopoulos said “”
The program is also designed to remove some of the barriers that forcibly displaced people face when trying to access employer-sponsored skilled migration pathways.
Helena Kyriazopoulos
,Chief Executive
Talent Beyond Boundaries works with governments, partners, and the private sector to ensure that refugees have equitable access to skilled migration as a complementary solution to displacement.
