The project "Reinventing refugee employment and integration in Italy" offers professional training for refugees based on the skills requested by businesses. The goal is to provide for the refugees' efficient insertion into the workforce.
The training programmes on offer are based on skills requested by employers. The main premise of the project is to help refugees find a job and true integration in society.
Fighting refugee unemployment
The project was created by Renato Cortesini, a young entrepreneur and youth representative for the Mediterranean Institute for Asia and Africa (ISMAA), which is a partner in the project. Cortesini's idea was to launch a social responsibility project within his own startup, and the project is now being brought forward with ISMAA, which is giving it visibility with Italian and European institutions.
"Despite the fact that the Italian government has adopted different policies to allow refugees access to public services such as healthcare, housing and education, substantial gaps continue to persist in education and work, which represent the main factors for integration," Cortesini said in a presentation of the project in Rome. He said high unemployment among refugees "persists because of the dysfunction in connecting supply and demand in the labor market".
Cortesini said the main reason for lack of successful job placement for refugees "is mainly due to the fact that the process for insertion into the work world starts at the bottom, where migrant reception centres orient refugees in training courses at the end of which the specialisation obtained doesn't match actual demand in the Italian market".
Work starting with businesses
Cortesini told ANSAmed this project turns that idea on its head, starting instead from the top, "from the businesses, which suggest what to do and what approaches the reception centres should use to train refugees, based on the needs of the market".
He said on the one side, there is the Centro Astalli support centre for refugees run by the Jesuits in Rome, and on the other side are the businesses. "There's a digital platform that helps match refugees' abilities with companies' needs," he said.
The initiative, which launched in September 2016, provides for 180 refugees chosen by Centro Astalli to participate in the project.The goal is concrete job placement for at least 60 refugees in two years. "The businesses will send their skills requests based on their needs, and then refugees will be involved in training courses oriented towards the sector requested," Cortesini said.
There are currently 10 companies involved in the project. Some refugees have already been selected for participation, and 20 are participating in training courses. The project, Cortesini said, aims to "raise companies' awareness", fight stereotypes and promote true integration, "which is only possible through work".