Begin with the end in mind: Reducing barriers to refugees’ access to work

“I feel truly fortunate to be part of this training — it opened my eyes to how compassion, empathy, and dedication can change lives.”

For this refugee participant in a caregiving course, the training lit a path toward making a powerful contribution to their community. As well as forging a sense of purpose and strengthening societal fabric, livelihoods can also — for people forced to flee — be a critical means of mobility and self-reliance.

With protracted displacement on the rise, humanitarian resources stretched, and limited options for resettlement, finding durable and lasting solutions for refugees is an increasingly urgent dilemma. Many host countries, however, bar refugees from legal employment. Even when refugees have the right to work, there are often significant barriers restricting their access to the formal labor market. To address this challenge in Indonesia, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with support from the Digital Innovation Fund, is testing approaches to enable refugees to improve their employability and mobility through the practical application of digital and vocational skills via internships.

By harnessing refugees’ existing capacities and providing opportunities to learn and apply new skills, the pilot has directly strengthened the employability and self-reliance of around 190 refugees through skill-building and, in the case of 51 participants, internships. Beyond the ongoing impact on the lives of participants, this pilot, through the partnerships it forged, has expanded the opportunities available to all forcibly displaced people in Indonesia — by sensitizing private companies to the possibility of on-the-job training for refugees and by including forcibly displaced people in a national qualifications framework.

Labor mobility and digital skills in Indonesia

In Indonesia, refugees and asylum seekers do not have the right to work and many lack awareness about the labor mobility options or opportunities that are available to them. Even if they are aware of these avenues, they may have no access to the necessary digital devices, struggle to complete online-only processes, or encounter prohibitive language barriers.

Digital skills are essential for nearly all jobs today. Without these skills, refugees risk being locked out of opportunities for both local livelihoods (in countries where these are legally accessible) and international mobility. To address these challenges, this pilot project aims to enhance digital protection through delivering digital skills training, enabling forcibly displaced people in Indonesia to connect to labor mobility platforms and safely use digital platforms when seeking and performing work.

Previous pilots in Indonesia sought to build digital skills using curricula co-created with refugees, but feedback suggested participants wanted more targeted and applied training. So, UNHCR Indonesia pivoted to develop a pilot project that not only provides digital skills that would allow refugees to take part in digital livelihoods but, equally importantly, broadens the training to include vocational skills to strengthen their employability. This new project also builds on the previous efforts by developing a concrete means whereby participants can access on-the-job training.

Practical skills and real-world training

The pilot consisted of three key phases: 1) specialized training, including in IT and digital skills, 2) internships with identified partners to enhance future employability, and 3) information sessions on connections to work opportunities in third countries. Initially, to find participants, UNHCR Indonesia used the local UNHCR-run Help website to provide information on the opportunity. UNHCR also engaged with refugee-led organizations and representatives of the refugee community to identify potential participants, to ensure both that the training reached individuals who would benefit and that it took their skills and preferences into account.

To focus on the development of in-demand skills, the UNHCR team first identified key skill gaps experienced by potential resettlement countries (for instance, Australia and Canada) using resources compiled by Talent Beyond Boundaries. They then sourced training programmes that could help refugees fill these gaps, including back-end engineering, digital marketing, cybersecurity, digital storytelling, caregiving, aged care, and pediatrics. A total of 117 participants took part in the skills training, of which 97 successfully graduated.

After the completion of the training phase, 51 of the project participants were successfully paired with companies — including partners Caregiver Indonesia, Alterra Academy, Refuture Indonesia, and Yayasan Karya Kasih Medan — to participate in internship programmes. Internships offered refugees something they had never been able to access before in Indonesia: a chance to apply their learning in real workplaces. For many, this could be their first line on a CV that might one day open doors to resettlement or international employment.

From the outset, feedback from refugees highlighted the importance of training that helps translate knowledge into practice. As such, trainees in storytelling and digital skills, for instance, used their sketching, design, social media, and video editing skills, while back-end engineering trainees built websites and developed self-guided online learning modules. Following the completion of the project, surveyed trainees pointed to the on-the-job training as the most useful aspect of this project. One person who completed training in back-end development noted:

“I only have a little bit of experience in programming, so I was hesitant to dive deeper into programming projects. However, after doing the final project and on-the-job training, I now feel more confident to start my own project.”

To widen the project’s reach, an additional 100 skilled refugees across five major refugee-hosting Indonesian cities joined the other participants for the final phase. This session focused on work opportunities in third countries, a CV-developing workshop (including one-on-one coaching and feedback), and applying digital skills to create individual profiles on the Talent Beyond Boundaries online catalogue as well as LinkedIn.

Partnerships: Making a difference

The partnerships forged as part of this pilot were key to its success — and are already paving the way toward a brighter future for forcibly displaced people in Indonesia. Collaboration with private sector partners enabled UNHCR to:

• Provide internships: Several partnerships from the private sector provided internships for refugees, at a time when some programmes were facing difficulties finding companies willing to do so, due to uncertainty over whether refugees in Indonesia are legally permitted to participate in on-the-job training (OJT).
• Create clarity among companies to facilitate refugee participation in OJT: Although the Government of Indonesia allows refugees to take part in OJT, many private companies were uncertain about how this works in practice — making them less likely to create opportunities for forcibly displaced people. One important outcome of the pilot has been to create confidence and clarity amongst companies in Indonesia — those who were directly involved as partners in the pilot as well as others — that refugees are legally permitted to participate in OJT and can be tapped as a valuable workforce. To achieve this, UNHCR Indonesia and partners actively reached out to partner networks of companies to introduce the pilot and raise awareness about the situation of refugees, in particular helping them see how internship placement can help support refugees’ career and life in the long-term.
• Enable refugees to earn nationally recognized certification: One of the pilot project’s private sector partners, Caregiver Indonesia, successfully advocated with the Indonesian government to allow on-the-job training (rather than prior work experience) to fulfil the eligibility requirements for the national skill qualification exams, and for refugees to be able to take these exams. As a result, 15 project participants have successfully earned national skill competency certificates, which could be a powerful tool to expand employment options and help build credibility. This development illustrates how a private sector partnership, in close collaboration with UNHCR, can play a critical role in tipping lobbying outcomes with government agencies.

Responding to real needs and creating a supportive environment

Throughout this pilot project, emphasis was placed on delivering support aligned to market demands and the preferences of participants, to ensure the trainings were contextually relevant and able to effectively advance self-reliance. Key lessons developed over the course of implementation included:

• Listen to refugees and adjust (quickly): Training courses poorly matched to participants’ existing skills and expectations are likely to result in non-completion. Initially, the pilot’s back-end engineering course saw a 38% dropout rate. So, the team worked with Altera Academy — who convened the course — to conduct a focus group discussion and determine the cause of dropouts. The findings (the course contents were too advanced, compounded by difficulties in managing both in-class and personal responsibilities) resulted in Altera promptly making adjustments to ensure that the training modalities better matched participants’ needs. This included providing greater flexibility (lighter workload and more make-up sessions) to enable participants to keep pace. After the adjustments were made, 84% of participants completed the trainings.
• Provide a friendly learning environment through peer support: In addition to completing their digital courses online on an individual basis, participants also received learning support through peer discussions with mentors, and WhatsApp coaching to discuss assignments, to help build a more inclusive learning environment. This approach has proven to be an effective way to recap and consolidate recent learnings and to ensure participants feel accompanied and supported in their training.
• Find alignment between market demand and refugee preferences: The skill training programme developed by UNHCR Indonesia selected focus areas to reflect in-demand market skills, to give participants the best chance to secure employment, but it also took into consideration the preferences expressed by refugees during focus group discussions, in which refugee women indicated they preferred hard skill training. For example, “caregiver” is listed by Talent Beyond Boundaries as one of the top three jobs in demand in Canada and Australia — both strong resettlement partners. Caregiving training was also identified by refugees as a priority. This is critical, as internal motivation from learners is a key to success.

Blazing a new trail

The project participants are already reaping the benefit of being more employable, with a graduate from the digital marketing training securing an online job abroad and three graduates from the back-end engineering programme also landing employment. With around 200 refugees newly equipped with the skills they need to forge careers and pursue self-reliance — demonstrating the efficacy of this approach — the pilot is looking to ensure these opportunities are more broadly available.

UNHCR Indonesia plans to share the pilot experience with companies and encourage replication, by developing a one-pager on how refugees can be included in internship programmes. Initiatives like this pilot project are a stepping stone toward a dignified life for refugees — and the increasing strain placed on humanitarian assistance and the resettlement system means they are more essential than ever.

Critically, however, they are just one piece of the puzzle. Ensuring refugees are able to pursue dignified work opportunities — whether online or as part of alternative resettlement pathways –is essential to ensuring such skill-building initiatives have an enduring impact. As one participant in the digital storytelling training said:

“Some friends have asked me to design for them. I have made a tournament poster and a menu for a friend’s business — all for free. So far, I do feel ready to land a job and I’ll be learning more about my craft when I get to work.”

Developing new paths toward self-sufficiency for refugees is beneficial for host economies and societies. By enabling refugees to access and obtain work, we can help shift societal attitudes towards refugees and strengthen social cohesion. Perhaps countries in the region with protracted refugee situations can take their cue from Thailand, which recently granted long-staying refugees from Myanmar the right to work in the country. By truly unlocking the potential of refugees, host countries can help tackle the humanitarian challenge head on by offering practical solutions while creating a new engine of growth.

Read more about UNHCR’s digital livelihoods and digital innovation work.