Grone trains refugees waiting for permission to stay
"Training plus language" is a six-month practical vocational continuing training programme, developed by Grone in Osnabrück in cooperation with the Federal Employment Agency. It is designed for young refugees who do not yet know if they will be allowed to stay.
The first participants finished in October. Ali Akbar Musawi (23) from Afghanistan was one of the 17 refugees on the pilot project. At the beginning, the young man could hardly speak a word of German. "He learned quickly and now understands what people say to him pretty well," commented Grone course leader Tatjana Lobach to work placement supervisor Michael Hülsmann, at the Osnabrück mechanical engineering company, BEN.
As Musawi went to work at the company in the spring for the first time in order to have his competences assessed, communication involved a lot of pointing and guessing, as Hülsmann recalled. "It was tough at the beginning. But after a while, it started getting better and better. Musawi's got what it takes to become a really good at a trade,” predicted Hülsmann. He is bright and committed. "If he keeps up the good work in the second part of his work experience, we would consider taking him on."
However for that to happen, he would have to be granted permission to stay. "Until that's been settled, refugees are not allowed to work in Germany," explained Angelika Kauffmann-Valdorf, team leader and coordinator for educational counselling at the Federal Employment Agency.
At least the time spent waiting can be well spent on training schemes like this, making it easier to integrate them into the labour market later.
The 17 participants come from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and other countries in crisis; in their own countries, they would have hardly any educational opportunities. "Our approach to learning seem strange to them at the beginning," said Lobach. With a few tricks to motivate them however, the teachers have managed to keep everyone on board.
In fact, recently, the class decided on their own initiative to set up a chat group on which they all communicate with each other in German. "A regular schedule at school and on the job helps the refugees to deal with what they have been through," said Hülsmann. This is the only way to give integration a chance.
The "Training plus language" programme consists of work-related language classes and orientation, but above all, practical, vocational modules. Participants undergo work experience in IT, trades, production, sales, nursing/care work and warehousing/logistics.
In the future, hotel and restaurants are going to be covered. "We deliberately chose industries in which there are a lack of skilled workers in Germany," explained Ulrike Berger, head of Grone Training Centre in Osnabrück. "We want to train people for the real labour market."