One of the key issues of this conference were the emerging challenges due to factors that have largely remained unaddressed (eg employment, gender issues, religious, ideological or cultural beliefs and values which underpin some of the tensions), and to their likely impact on a socially cohesive Goulburn Valley in the future. Employment was the front and centre issue of this social cohesion conference. Andrew Keast of Refugee Talent gave an insight into how a dedicated agency puts strategies into place to aid refugees in gaining employment.
Inview
Refugee & Migrant Talent is an online platform where companies can easily find highly skilled diverse talent and offer a range of employment opportunities. We have refugees & migrants on our platform with a range of skills from Accounting, Banking & Finance, HR, Marketing, IT, Sales and Design. More than 250 companies are working with us nationally from government departments, corporates, SME’s and start-ups.
We are operating nationally with also the potential to hire refugee candidates internationally with our partnership with Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB). Companies in Australia using the Refugee Talent platform can hire highly skilled refugees from a refugee camp in Jordan and Lebanon. The pilot is the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Abstract:
UNHCR statistics show us there are now over 65 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. It’s time for a deeper and broader understanding of what dignity, self-respect, self-determination, empowerment, creativity, contribution to community, belonging and connection means to building a sustainable future. How are social enterprises and technology being used to support this?
Organisations are creating environments that foster these attributes because they are now recognised as beneficial to both social cohesion and business outcomes. Studies are now validating what we have intrinsically always known: just as the interdependence and richness of nature itself is reliant on diversity, so too are we.
Andrew Keast
Andrew Keast is deeply interested and passionate about our collective human story. Having traveled extensively globally, studied psychology, philosophy and music and worked within the human resource, recruitment and technology sectors for more than 20 years, Andrew’s passion and energy is directed towards social entrepreneurship and working with organisations that deeply value bridging the worlds of social and environmental outcomes with commercial outcomes using technology and storytelling: new narratives, new ways of connecting, thinking, feeling and participating.
As StoryTeller with Refugee Talent, Andrew is thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to share the story of Refugee and Migrant Talent, which at its core, seeks to influence change associated with the narratives of refugees, migrants and employment. The company is combining a powerful technology solution with a deep desire to connect and share and a broad social intent to expand community understanding, awareness and engagement around this matter. You can contact Andrew Keast here: andrewkeast — at — refugeetalent.com
Refugee Talent
Refugee Talent founders, Nirary Dacho and Anna Robson met at the Sydney Techfugee Hackathon in November 2015. They joined together to solve the problem of refugees struggling to get their first local work experience in their new country. The solution Refugee Talent – is a digital platform to connect skilled refugees with companies offering short and long term job opportunities.
Refugee & Migrant Talent now have over 300 employers registered on the platform and have worked with numerous organisations across Australia. You may download a presentation with a little more detail about their work that may be of assistance to readers.
Download an Overview of the work of Refugee and Migrant Talent.
