Six months have really changed his life - Refugees & Mentors Story

In just six months, Yusaf has got his English up to speed, is booked in for college courses, knows the type of jobs that are available, has a really good CV, and has interview and work experience. It’s really changed his life and he feels part of a community now.

Refugees & Mentors help asylum seekers and refugees to find work once they’ve been granted refugee status. Lee started volunteering eight months ago and was paired up with Yusaf, an Iraqi refugee in his mid-twenties. They are both engineers and once they updated his CV, they discussed the type of work he would like to do and then contacted lots of prospective employers and helped him arrange interviews and carried out mock interviews. He has had some week long work placements at a couple of engineering companies just to get him some experience.

Lee said, “We’ve managed to get him a job in a warehouse but it’s not his core skills,he’s a really good engineer so we are still trying to get him an engineering job. Today we had a drop-in session just to see how his job  is going and to make sure he is set for starting his college course next week.

There are lots of benefits to the work we do. Economically, we helping to get people off benefits and getting them into employment as quickly as we can. It also helps to integrate refugees into the community because they are playing an active part. Confidence is a big thing and just an understanding of the British culture and language. Feeling more at home here.”