Refugee Engineering Mentoring Programme
The Engineering Council is working with the Refugee Employment Network to provide a mentoring programme for refugees. This is to ensure that engineers and technicians with refugee status can access appropriate, fulfilling, paid employment or self-employment and rebuild their lives in the UK.
The programme will help tackle refugee unemployment, realising potential for individuals and society, as well as helping to address the skills shortages in engineering roles across the profession. It will help to overcome barriers to refugees obtaining appropriate employment, including difficulties in translating or transferring documents such as qualifications, unfamiliarity with the UK job market and interview processes.
Goals of the Refugee Engineering Mentoring Programme
For those that join the programme as a mentee, the aims of the programme are to support engineers and technicians to gain the relevant skills, gain professional recognition and registration, introduce them to professional networks and support their career progression:
- Skills: Provide professional guidance (CV writing, interview skills)
- Accreditation: Assist with qualification recognition and training
- Networking: Introduce refugees to the UK engineering community
- Confidence: Support career progression
Who can join the programme as a mentee?
Refugees with engineering qualifications and experience, with:
- The right to work in the UK
- Gaps in professional experience due to asylum circumstances
- Motivated to rebuild engineering careers
- Availability to attend a mentor meeting every two weeks for 6 weeks
Opportunities to mentor
PEIs have the opportunity to identify and recruit members as potential mentors. Mentoring will involve meeting with their mentee every two weeks for six weeks to help them progress to secure employment appropriate to their qualifications and experience.
