Celebrating 2 years of our Skills for Employment program

Corporate news9 November 2022

More than 140 participants have now gone through the two-month paid work placement at IKEA Australia for people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, gaining Australian work experience, skills training and a reference for future employment .

In October 2022 IKEA Australia celebrated the second anniversary of the Skills for Employment program, run in partnership with award winning refugee employment specialists, Community Corporate.

At IKEA, we want to change the narrative about how society views people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds by challenging perceptions and seeing people for who they are and the value they bring, not their stereotypes.

Once a refugee or asylum seeker resettles in their new country, there are significant barriers to gaining employment, such as language, lack of local experience and local networks, and cultural bias. To help overcome these barriers, IKEA Australia runs its Skills for Employment program, in which participants spend two months on a paid work placement at IKEA and leave having gained crucial Australian work experience, skills training and a reference for future employment.

Harriet Pope, Project Leader for the Skills for Employment program in Australia says, “At IKEA, we believe everyone has the right to feel at home - no matter who we are or where we come from. When refugees and people seeking asylum arrive in Australia, they bring knowledge, motivation, education, resilience, and adaptability with them. Finding stable work is a priority for creating a new life, but too often they’re faced with barriers – simply due to not being familiar with the local job market, not having local work experience or a reference, unrecognized qualifications etc. Employers have an important role to play in actively welcoming refugees and asylum seekers, in seeing their talent and potential, and seeing the enormous value they can bring to a business.“

Carmen Garcia, CEO and Founder of Community Corporate says, “It has been an absolute privilege to partner with IKEA Australia to bring the Skills for Employment initiative to life. This is what true collaboration looks like, when values align and our aspirations and ambition delivers hope, rewards and opportunities for all! The level of commitment from IKEA has been unprecedented across the entire business, visible through the level of engagement, participation, care, and consultation critical to our success to date. Together we have proven, we can do it differently with meaning and I thank each and every co-worker for playing a pivotal role in welcoming and supporting refugees build skills, confidence and find genuine belonging in the IKEA family.”

In the two years since the program started, there have been more than 140 participants in the program. While the aim is to strengthen pathways towards stable employment inside or outside IKEA, over 80% of participants have been offered ongoing work at IKEA. The eight-week paid work placement is committed to supporting 180 refugees and asylum seekers in the program by the end of 2023.

The Skills for Employment program has highlighted the mutual benefits of supporting refugees to enter the Australian workforce: pride in an inclusive culture, greater cross-cultural competence and new mentorship skills for IKEA co-workers. Shared languages and deeper cultural connections are creating a better customer experience, too.

Mehdi Noori, Sales co-worker at IKEA Adelaide, and previous participant shares his experience in the program. “The Skills for Employment program was really helpful in terms of developing my confidence and learning a new role, dealing with customers and how to approach them. Before I came to IKEA, I knew about teamwork, but teamwork in IKEA is a bit different to other industries. Here, it is seen as Togetherness, which is like being part of a family – we help each other to help the business grow and at the same time this helps us to grow personally in our day to day lives.”