Migration promotes the labour integration of refugees with strategic alliances and customised training

The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration continues to make progress in creating job opportunities for applicants for international protection. In its latest quarterly bulletin, the Directorate General for Humanitarian Attention and the International Protection Reception System - part of the State Secretariat for Migration - highlights the progress made in July, August and September 2024 in its training and employment programme for refugees.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, the Ministry strengthened its collaboration with multinationals such as IKEA, Amazon, Cisco Systems, COBRA Group and INECO to facilitate the integration of refugees into the labour market. Among the actions developed are Spanish courses and training in specific skills, adapted to the needs of the labour market and mostly given by the collaborating companies, in order to adapt the training to the real needs of the labour market.

"These initiatives demonstrate our firm commitment to transforming reception into employment, and employment into a real path towards autonomy and personal development for refugees," said Elma Saiz, Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

Training and recruitment

• IKEA: following a training course on storage for people from Mali housed in the Emergency Reception Centres (CAED) in Alcalá and Carabanchel, several of the participants have been incorporated in the San Sebastián de los Reyes store. In addition, people hosted in these centres have received a Spanish language course through the collaboration of FEDELE. The "sourcing talent pool" initiative, aimed at facilitating access to selection processes for people targeted by the reception system, has also been followed up. Since June, a total of 40 applications have been submitted by 13 organisations, and seven people have been recruited.
• AMAZON: in collaboration with ACCEM, a pre-employment training stage has been carried out with residents of the CAED of Alcalá. At the end of the training, 15 participants were selected to work in the Amazon distribution centre in Illescas (Toledo).
• INECO: 282 job interviews were held with refugees to fill vacancies distributed by the Directorate General for Humanitarian Attention and the International Protection Reception System. The number of applications from Ukraine (139), Venezuela (48) and Afghanistan (28), and the profile of engineering and bachelor's degree students stand out.
• COBRA GROUP: the collaboration with this company has been extended to facilitate the recruitment of people in a project to construct a photovoltaic plant in Cáceres. The collaboration has included training in occupational risk prevention and the payment of room and board at the workplace during the first weeks as a step towards the autonomy phase.

In addition, a second mission has been launched in Costa Rica in which it is planned to increase the number of people resettled in Spain to work on projects such as the construction of photovoltaic plants in the province of Valladolid.

Job fair for refugee recruitment

As a result of the collaboration of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration with the TENT Foundation (a network of more than 350 large companies committed to the recruitment, training and mentoring of refugees), a job fair has been organised in Madrid, where a commitment has already been made to recruit around 100 people throughout Spain by one of the participating companies.

In addition, the Mentoring Programme for Refugee Women, in which UNHCR is also involved, is being disseminated among the entities of the International and Temporary Protection Reception System (SAPI). The objectives of this TENT programme are to help refugee women strengthen their professional skills, find their way into new labour markets, learn about labour regulations and achieve new career goals in their host country.

Non official translation