Skilled migrants make up 68% of migrant entrants in Australia, and are twice as likely to have a university degree compared to an Australian-born worker. Despite this, they make up only 5% of the tertiary qualified workforce, with 9% of skilled migrants who have attained a permanent visa remaining unemployed.
Community Migrant Resource Centre’s (CMRC) Top Talent Placement project seeks to provide skilled migrants (who often have a wealth of international experience and education) with opportunities to enter the Australian job market.
In partnership with the Smart Talent Group, a privately owned boutique consultancy offering bespoke recruitment solutions for clients, it helps employers to recognise the underutilised assets that are the skilled migrants sitting right at their doorstep.
The program aims to connect a pool of highly qualified and experienced skilled migrants with Australian employers by educating employers and then giving them a four-week partially funded period with the new worker, allowing them to put the worker through their paces and see if they are the right fit.
The project has the added benefit of providing participants with local experience.
At a corporate breakfast in Parramatta on May 15, CMRC CEO Melissa Monteiro said, “Skilled migrants have to navigate and negotiate many challenges with regards to settlement, and one key area is in seeking and gaining employment.
“The CMRC is currently implementing a contemporary resettlement service community development framework. Our framework allows migrants to participate both socially and economically in the Australian community. We aim to make sure our clients are job ready through workshops tailored to address soft and hard business skills.”
Smart Talent Group founder, Reynah Fernandes, said, “We understand that educating the new migrant market on how to get ready for the Australian workplace is important. But it didn’t make sense just leaving it there. So forming a partnership where we educate the employers about how they can potentially win by recruiting skilled migrants is a project we’re working on with CMRC.”
Neidra Motha, who secured a role as Project Manager at Standards Australia thanks to the placement model, said, “Because of smart talent group's network of contacts, employers who they were putting me in touch with were able to see that I have the skills, the capability, as well as the required experience and qualifications to do the role.”