New Job Workshop Launched
Trust and mutual respect are the cornerstones every Wednesday, when refugees, asylum seekers and other interns in Trampoline House move closer to the job market.
By Signe Markvard, Communications Intern
Everyone who comes to Trampoline House now have the possibility to get help to find a job. Every Wednesday at 10am–12pm, volunteer job counselors arrange a job workshop that will strengthen the participants in their pursuit of the job market. The workshop covers all the different steps in the job application process, from writing a CV to finding work.
Marco Ibrahim, 46 years old, is a refugee from Somalia and one of the participants in the workshop. Only two months after coming to Denmark, the municipality sent her to do ‘praktik’ (job internship) at a large Danish company. The work consisted of collecting wires.
Marco is one of the participants in Trampoline House’s job workshop. Photo: Alina Strileckis
- I hope that the job workshop in Trampoline House can be a step on the road towards a job that better matches who I am, says Marco.
Her wish is to find work in a kindergarten in Denmark one day.
The dream of work
- The refugees and asylum seekers that we meet wish to work. To be allowed to integrate in the Danish society and support themselves without having to be part of the many systems that asylum seekers in Denmark are subject to, says Louise Østerlund, who is a volunteer project and job consultant in Trampoline House and teaches the job workshop.
According to Louise, it is of great significance that the teaching and guidance takes place in Trampoline House, where asylum seekers and refugees themselves are an active part of the community.
- How do we strengthen the person sitting in front of us in the best way possible? In order to find out, we need to get to know each other first, she says.
Therefore, the workshop makes time for the personal meeting at the workshop.
- Many refugees carry with them some harsh experiences. Maybe one of the participants seems absent-minded, but maybe it’s in fact because they’re worrying about their child being on their own in the home country. The participant needs a job in order to pay for the child to come here.
At the workshop, the teachers listen to the participants’ own job wishes, ask about their dreams, and map out which skills they already have and what they might need. On these grounds, they try to create an image that is realistic, both in terms of the participants’ current situation and regarding the job market.
- Of course, my hope is that the participants at the workshop find work. That they get a clearer and more specific understanding of their skills and wishes concerning future employment. And eventually get a clear idea of which steps they need to take in order to get the job they want, she says.
The job workshop is a part of Trampoline House’s project ‘Next Practice,’ which maps refugees’ and asylum seekers’ skills and matches them with Trampoline House’s network of Danish companies that are looking to expand their work force. The project is supported by TrygFonden and The Tuborg Foundation.
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