“Creating systemic change takes time and collaboration”: Jenny Walton, Refugee Employment Network

“We keep hearing about skills shortages in the UK, and yet there is a large highly-skilled talent pool who are desperate to work,” says Jenny Walton, CEO of the Refugee Employment Network (REN).

REN is the UK’s only network dedicated to refugee employment. Its network comprises over 400 member organisations and it works with over 550 employers. Over the past two years, REN has posted more than 17,500 jobs on the UK’s only refugee jobs board, run in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Alongside that it provides mentoring and coaching for refugees, in association with businesses and industry bodies and runs job fairs around the UK.

Walton says the work REN does benefits businesses and the UK economy, as well as refugee communities and their families. 

In-demand skills going under the radar

“I met with a group of business leaders recently and the first question I asked was ‘what is your business doing about refugee employment?’, and almost all of them said ‘nothing’,” says Walton. “It just isn't on people’s radar, until they find out what kind of talent they can access.”

Walton says more than half of all refugees in the UK hold qualifications equivalent to A-Levels or higher — 33% have a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) and 23% have a Master's degree (MA) — yet only 43% of refugees are currently in roles which match their skills.

“What that's saying is there's this huge waste of talent,” she adds.

Among the candidates REN is working with are a wide range of professionals — from Syrian lawyers and Ukrainian HR directors and accountants to engineers and cyber security experts from Afghanistan — who have all fled to the UK looking to establish a new life, restart their career and achieve financial stability and independence.

“We are really focused on helping businesses unlock this incredible talent pool that is highly skilled, highly qualified, and highly motivated to work,” she says.

“So, we are bringing together businesses, refugees, refugee support organisations, local government and local authorities to lower the barriers to employment for refugees in the UK.”

More than a philanthropic mission

However, Walton is keen to point out: “This is not a purely philanthropic mission. This is a way for businesses to access talent they need to address immediate challenges and to grow their business and upskill their workforce long-term.” 

A current focus for REN is on working with employers and industry bodies in engineering, a sector typically struggling with skills shortages, while REN has a wealth of highly-qualified engineers within its network, which collectively reaches over 40,000 refugees across the UK.

However, it is not as simple as just putting candidates into open roles. One of the reasons for the discussions with industry bodies is because there are still barriers to overcome such as establishing the comparability and transferability of qualifications attained in other countries.

Walton says this is just one example of why a collaborative effort is required between its members, businesses, industry bodies and the Government.

But for all the well-reasoned, data-backed rationale Walton shares, she is acutely aware there is an emotive side to the refugee situation which stirs a strong — at times even violent — reaction from some quarters of a divided and politically polarised society.

A marathon not a sprint

Walton has been in her role for six months and early in her tenure had to make a call on whether to continue with REN’s first refugee jobs fair in Northern Ireland, against a backdrop of violence targeting refugees, asylum seekers, and migrant communities in the UK.

But after careful planning and consulting with their partners, REN went ahead with the fair which brought together 100 skilled refugees and 25 employers. That consultative approach was a cornerstone of Walton’s approach in those early days.

“My strategy for the first 100 days was to listen,” she says. “To not do, to not act, to not come up with my strategy, but to slow down and meet with our network, meet with refugees and listen. I'm used to going fast and looking for quick wins. But what we're trying to do here is create systemic change, and that takes time.”

The PwC CEO Survey reveals many CEOs, across almost every sector, are facing a pressing need to create change, and Walton’s point feels universally relevant. Amassing quick wins may feel like progress, but if the change required is significant, long-term and systemic then busying yourself with quick wins is little more than a distraction. 

“By learning to slow down, I’ve been able to have much deeper conversations, gather more insight and understanding, build stronger relationships, and ultimately make better decisions. As the proverb says, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together’. This is the key to my approach and how I intend to drive meaningful change for refugee communities and the UK economy.”