Igno­red potential

‘It all star­ted with an aware­ness campaign that we laun­ched toge­ther with the Swiss Employ­ers’ Asso­cia­tion (SAV) and trade asso­cia­ti­ons,’ says Virgi­nia Suter, Head of Swiss Divi­sion at the aid agency of the Protes­tant Churches in Switz­er­land (HEKS). The aim of the campaign was to high­light the poten­tial for skil­led workers on our own door­step: Many people with a migrant back­ground in Switz­er­land are quali­fied, skil­led workers. In fact, they could meet a need of the economy and create econo­mic added value. This is preven­ted by some­ti­mes unneces­sary admi­nis­tra­tive hurd­les and a lack of flexi­bi­lity on the part of compa­nies. The campaign wanted to draw atten­tion to these hurd­les and raise aware­ness amongst compa­nies of how they unin­ten­tio­nally fail to make use of exis­ting resour­ces. It turned out that raising aware­ness is only one of the first steps towards acti­vat­ing this poten­tial. This expe­ri­ence led to the crea­tion of HEKS MosaiQ: a specia­list unit that supports well-quali­fied migrants and refu­gees on their way into the world of work and helps the economy make the most of their poten­tial. ‘Our offe­ring has deve­lo­ped signi­fi­cantly since then,’ says Suter. In addi­tion to raising aware­ness, the focus is also on coaching and refer­ring candi­da­tes. One focus of the programme is support for the reco­gni­tion of diplo­mas from abroad. But regu­la­ted profes­si­ons in parti­cu­lar, such as health­care, face barriers that are very diffi­cult to surmount. ‘This means that specia­lists from third count­ries cannot prac­tise their profes­sion even though they have the requi­red skills.’

Finding the code

HEKS MosaiQ promo­tes entry into a profes­sion corre­spon­ding to a person’s quali­fi­ca­ti­ons. Power­co­ders has taken a diffe­rent path. The non-profit orga­ni­sa­tion recruits people with a migrant back­ground speci­fi­cally for the IT indus­try – a sector that typi­cally has a great shortage of skil­led workers. They often have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, or even a PhD. Howe­ver, they find it very hard to find work in their origi­nal profes­sion in Switz­er­land because the hurd­les are too high. With addi­tio­nal trai­ning in IT, howe­ver, they become sought-after specia­lists. For exam­ple, a lawyer with IT exper­tise can be valuable to a company – as can a maths teacher or a former finan­cial employee with new IT skills. Power­co­ders was crea­ted in 2017 in response to the refu­gee crisis. At that time there was alre­ady a great shortage of IT specialists.

They want to engage in social issues, and only reco­g­nise the econo­mic value later on

Chris­tina Gräni, Powercoders

‘That’s why we laun­ched an IT upskil­ling programme,’ explains Chris­tina Gräni, Head of Media Rela­ti­ons at Power­co­ders. Initi­ally, the focus was on coding. Later, it added cour­ses on data science, cyber­se­cu­rity, IT support and project manage­ment. ‘We saw that there was a need for this,’ says Gräni. This adjus­t­ment has now proved to be an advan­tage. After all, jobs in web and soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment are incre­asingly migra­ting to chea­per count­ries. These cour­ses are very much sought-after. 365 people have comple­ted further trai­ning at Power­co­ders, 90 per cent found an intern­ship and 70 per cent a perma­nent job. Intern­ships are the limi­ting factor. Only 30 candi­da­tes can be accepted twice a year. ‘We’re not a trai­ning scheme,’ says Gräni. Candi­da­tes are ther­e­fore only accepted when they have the pros­pect of an intern­ship. Finding the right compa­nies remains a challenge.

Raising aware­ness remains key

The HEKS MosaiQ programme starts with an evalua­tion of the candidate’s poten­tial, of which 1000 were carried out last year. This is follo­wed by coaching sessi­ons on profes­sio­nal inte­gra­tion. HEKS MosaiQ offe­red more than 300 coaching sessi­ons and supported the reco­gni­tion of 230 diplo­mas. The programme also served as the inter­me­diary for 50 intern­ships, made 62 perma­nent posi­ti­ons possi­ble and star­ted up 35 trai­ning cour­ses. These figu­res are not repre­sen­ta­tive of the true success of the scheme. Suter points out that after the evalua­tion of a candidate’s poten­tial the path may be clear for many people, and also that if someone finds a job after coaching, they are not obli­ged to report it to HEKS MosaiQ. Nevert­hel­ess, Suter is convin­ced that they can achieve even more by raising aware­ness. In some cases, even candi­da­tes who hold reco­g­nised diplo­mas are unsuc­cessful in the recruit­ment process because it requi­res too much run-of-the-mill, Switz­er­land-based profes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence. To some extent, it also beco­mes appa­rent that a job in a rela­ted field of work is easier to obtain.

These are the pieces of the puzzle that we’re trying to put together.

Virgi­nia Suter, HEKS

Appro­priate retrai­ning can help to build on exis­ting exper­tise. This will prevent dequa­li­fi­ca­tion, which progres­ses over time. Women in parti­cu­lar expe­ri­ence such unequal support prac­ti­ces due to social struc­tures and the insuf­fi­ci­ent compa­ti­bi­lity of their care­ers and family life, notes Suter. HEKS MosaiQ is working on brea­king down these hurd­les. ‘These are the pieces of the puzzle that we’re trying to put toge­ther,’ says Suter. In many areas, she would like employ­ers to be more flexi­ble. This would help to alle­viate the shortage of skil­led workers and inte­grate people with a migrant back­ground into the labour market. The requi­red level of language skills should be more closely aligned with the actual needs. It remains a key issue: ‘Parti­cu­larly in care and social care profes­si­ons, there are high demands,’ says Suter. ‘The “zero gap” requi­re­ment – the recruit­ment stra­tegy that aims to match the skills profile of the job adver­ti­se­ment perfectly – is also often an unneces­sary obstacle.’

Between social commit­ment and econo­mic benefit

Power­co­ders consis­t­ently commu­ni­ca­tes in English – not least because it simpli­fies commu­ni­ca­tion between team members from French-spea­king and German-spea­king Switz­er­land. ‘It’s the lowest common deno­mi­na­tor,’ says Gräni. Nevert­hel­ess, profi­ci­ency in a local language is an advan­tage. Most candi­da­tes reach a good level. This makes it easier for compa­nies to inte­grate the workers. For some firms, it is the social aspect that moti­va­tes them to parti­ci­pate. ‘They want to engage in social issues, and only reco­g­nise the econo­mic value later on,’ says Gräni. ‘Others start speci­fi­cally because they’re looking for skil­led workers.’