Almost 200 migrants in Galway, Castlebar, and Monaghan have been helped on their path to finding long term employment by the Welcome to Work programme.
Since June 2017 migrants legally residents in Ireland have been taking part in this 13 week course in Galway, Castlebar, and Monaghan run by Seetec.
This programme is intended to increase people’s ability to find employment or go into further training by helping them with language training, social skills and close mentoring.
This week saw three migrants resident in Galway graduate from the programme, with the remainder or people enrolled finishing up in June.
Georgina Murphy, Seetec Operations & Supply Chain Director said the Welcome to Work helps to change the lives of people in Ireland’s new communities.
“Our teams have worked hard in the last two years supporting our participants and giving them the best possible chance to boost their employment opportunities.”
“This has a positive impact on the community with more people ready to enter the workforce and businesses now able to recruit from a larger pool of potential employees”.
Welcome to Work began in June 2017 and is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Social Fund (ESF) as part of the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning.
According to Seetec, since the programme began 193 resident migrants have enrolled in it.
23-year-old Suleiman fled his home in Syria and came to Ireland as part of Ireland’s refugee resettlement programme.
He said that he has secondary level education and experience working as a waiter, but he needed to improve his CV and other areas to become more employable.
“I was given support with writing a CV, practicing interviewing techniques, improving my digital skills, speaking conversational English, learning about Irish culture, cooking and music, and I met some lovely people,” said Suleiman, who has since found work in a hotel.
Patrycja, who participated with her husband, said that the programme helped her to integrate into the community here in Galway.
“From lesson to lesson I realised that this programme helped me to settle well into Galway, to get to know people, improve my English and give me confidence.”
