A cooking lesson in the right direction
Sarah from Palestine dreams about opening a café with her own cakes, but it requires language skills and knowledge of the Danish job market. To practice her skills Sarah visited the elementary school in Jyllinge to teach a cooking lesson together with Trampoline House’s job training program, Next Practice. According to LG Insights, the job training is of great value to both the participants and the society.
By Christiane Jessen og Tenna Evron
Internships in the kitchen is part of the employment programme in Trampoline House. Photo: Britta My Thomsen
The scene was set. For the following three hours, Sarah* was going to be the teacher of a class full of 6th graders as a part of Next Practice, the job training program in Trampoline House. The subject was a cooking lesson in the middle eastern dish Köfte. The local teacher had prepared and shopped all the ingredients and with support from the Next Practice staff, Sarah started teaching the 20 young pupils how to cook the Arabic dish for lunch. The pupils were excited but also a little nervous as they had googled the middle eastern kitchen and found that it looked ‘very vegetarian’.
But before the cooking could begin, Sarah explained to the pupils what culture means in a place like Trampoline House. Culture is also about cooking, she said, and tasting dishes from other countries. Trampoline House is a culture house where you can taste food and dishes from all over the world.
“But do you know what a culture house is?” Sarah asked.
The pupils were well prepared: “It’s like a place with mixed cultures and a shared community”.
Valuable job training
The different job-preparing activities and internships that Trampoline House offers, provides refugees with a sort of ‘trampoline’ allowing them to better jump into the Danish job market. During the last three years Trampoline House has developed the special job training program Next Practice, in which refugees can practice concrete skills that are necessary to get a job. In addition to language skills and knowledge about society, the job training program also offers business workshops, where job interviews are practiced:
“In order to access the job market, different skills are required, for example carrying out a job interview. Basically, we make a role play – we ask them to step outside the door and choose a specific job, which someone will then interview them for”, Simon Christensen, the job coordinator in Trampoline House, explains.
Practicing the job interview enhances the chances of getting a job and it also provides the job seeking refugee with confidence and an understanding of how to sell oneself in an interview situation:
“It gives people competences and empowerment, and moves people closer to getting a job, which the vast majority’s primary wish; to become self-supporting", Simon Christensen continues.
The job training program is also supported by Lars Larsen, the director of LG Insights that works with municipalities on integration.
What is special about the job training in Trampoline House?
“The big purpose of the integration efforts is to get newcomers out on the job market. Trampoline House helps with the first steps but also when it comes to internships and this is of great value both to the citizen, the companies and the society.”
Why are visits to companies and institutions important in the job training program?
“Many people don’t know the demands places by the companies. Therefore, it is so important to get out there and experience a Danish company, to see what kind of technology is used and what kind of demands are placed by the company. By quickly gaining experience, both in Trampoline House and in the companies, the process of getting closer to a job accelerates,” Lars Larsen says.
The dream of a café full of cakes
Back in the class room, Sarah is helping the pupils cook the dish of the special cooking lesson, which is a classic in her own kitchen: Köfte in tomato sauce with rice. Everyone is busy cutting, preparing, frying and finally arranging the vegetables and the meat.
While the pupils are cooking rice and cutting vegetables, Sarah walks around and assists with good advice. It is a good way to practice the Danish vocabulary. It’s not every day, Sarah speaks in front of 20 6th graders for three hours, so it takes extra effort:
“It was really interesting and fun to try, but also a bit hard. The kids are really nice, but I am shy, and it is difficult for me to speak out loud, so it was really helpful with assistance from the Next Practice staff.”
But Sarah is ready to take on the task again in the future, though with one thing different: Next time with cake on the menu. Sarah dreams about opening her own café, with windows filled with big, delicious cakes.
Because of private concerns we use the pseudonym Sarah. The woman’s real name is known by Trampoline House.
Support refugees’ way into the job market
In Trampoline House, we’ve developed a method that makes it easier for refugees to find a foothold in the job market. Several municipalities have already started employing our method, but in order to get a broader reach, we also need the financial support from individuals. If you, your partner or your mother would also be able to support our work with a recurring donation, it would make a great difference to our work.
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