IKEA supports Refugees through Skills for Employment
At IKEA, our vision is to help make a better everyday life for the many people. We are committed to championing human rights, having a positive impact on people across our value chain and support resilient, thriving neighbourhoods in the communities that we operate.
At Ingka Group we support social and economic integration of refugees by:
- providing employment opportunities, language training, and skills development programmes
- committing to support 3000 refugees by the end of 2027, this is in addition to the 3200+ already supported
Refugees can often face significant challenges in accessing basic necessities, including food, clean water, shelter, healthcare, and education, with many living in overcrowded camps or urban areas with limited resources. Refugees may face other barriers, including limited local language, cultural differences, no access to recruitment opportunities negative and damaging misconceptions, unhelpful stereotypes. The societal challenges caused by failing to integrate new arrivals shouldn’t be underestimated. Access to employment and financial services is critical to breaking the cycle of dependency that refugees can find themselves in when they seek safety in a foreign country.
To help change this narrative of refuges in society and contribute to supporting refugees into meaningful employment, IKEA UK & Ireland work in partnership with the The Refugee Council in England, Scottish Refugee Council, Welsh Refugee Council, Breaking Barriers and Tent UK - charities supporting refugees – to give people who came to the UK having fled war, terror, violence and persecution the chance to learn the vital new skills needed to enter the UK labour market, and ultimately find long-term employment here.
As part of INGKA’s global commitment to support refugee integration with our Skills for Employment initiative, IKEA UK and Ireland launched UPPNÅ (meaning ‘to achieve’ in Swedish) in 2021, a program offering an 8-week fully-paid placement in an IKEA unit, providing experience, a solid reference to take away for future job applications, and for most participants — a permanent role with IKEA at the end.
Refugees access a programme of employability workshops that include an introduction to IKEA's core values, the UK labour market more generally and they also receive support with CV writing, job applications, interview techniques and customer service training. Work placements, paid at the Living Wage, then enable them to gain work experience at IKEA while developing their English language skills, improving their workplace confidence and becoming an active part of IKEA's co-worker community. We also have extended the UPPNA programme to now supporting highly skilled refuges who have degrees into more professional placements, in our IKEA UK and Ireland head office roles such as Digital and Accountancy.
