Funding for this project was awarded by the UK Responsible Authority on behalf of the European Commission in April 2020 and the project team at the Strategic Migration Partnership has been working with project partners to recruit to the 20 roles that the scheme has created as well as award some of the work to subcontractors.
We now have well-being therapists in place across the region where Refugee Council is delivering the service, dedicated refugee employment advisers and skills assessors in every county and English language (ESOL specialist) tutors ready to deliver online English with Employment Skills classes to help our refugees enter the UK job market. On top of that, we have a region-wide employer liaison service to link people into work placement roles and a mentoring programme with MENTA to encourage entrepreneurial refugees to run their own businesses.
We are marking this milestone with an online launch event in October for agencies across the region to attend and meet the providers to find out what is on offer and how to access these services. The project is time-limited and will finish in December 2022, so we want to make sure that everyone who needs to access it knows about it. If you are interested in finding out more, please register for the October event. If your business has opportunities for work placements anywhere in the East of England, our Employer Liaison Officers would welcome a conversation. For more details, please get in touch with the project team.
Project Manager: Louise Gooch louise.gooch@eelga.gov.uk
Employer Liaison Officer: Rachel Heathcock rachel.heathcock@eelga.gov.uk
Partner/subcontractor organisations
Bedfordshire: BRASS/Refugee Council/WEA;
Cambridgeshire/Peterborough: Gladca/PARCA/Refugee Council;
Essex: Essex Integration/Refugee Council; Hertfordshire: Refugee Council/WEA;
Norfolk: Norfolk County Council; Suffolk: Health Outreach/Suffolk Refugee Support/WEA;
Region-wide specialist skills providers: Concept Training; MENTA
