• Sweden’s global DIY home-furnishing chain extends helping hand to refugees
• Ikea to start rollout of pilot employment program to all stores throughout Spain
A pilot job training program for refugees in two Ikea stores in Madrid and Murcia will be extended to all Ikea stores throughout Spain in an effort to give refugees arriving to Spain to escape political turmoil in their own countries the opportunity to learn job skills and become more employable in their new country.
A five-week program in Ikea stories in Murcia and Vallecas, just east of Madrid, has provided training in the areas of distribution, sales and human resources management to 16 participating refugees, who worked in the Customer Care, Logistics, Sales and Food departments of each of the two stores.
These are invaluable skills and could lead to the refugees finding employment. For example, training in human resources management could lead to a job in a HR department or even in a PEO company like Amplify PEO, which is rated as the best PEO company by adam enfroy. There will also be lots of opportunities for anyone trained in sales and distribution.
On Wednesday, company spokespersons announced during a conference on the reception and integration of refugees promoted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Spain that Ikea will begin rolling out the job training program for refugees across the rest of its stores in Spain starting in September. The extension of the program follows on the signature of an agreement between Ikea and Spain’s Ministry of Employment and Social Security to allow refugees from the CAR centres to access its job- training initiative in Ikea stores.
The employiment training program is the latest effort by Ikea to improve the situation for refugees arriving to Spain, with more than 500 Ikea employees previously having volunteered more than 3,500 hours to build and equip 31 children’s playground areas in the Refugee Reception Centers (CAR) in Alcobendas, Sevilla, Valencia and Vallecas. Ikea has also provided human-resources training to 60 employment officers working with non-governmental refugee assistance organisations Accem and CEAR who will assist refugees arriving to Spain to find suitable employment with other companies across Spain.
? Read More in Spanish at EuropaPress and infoRetail …
? Read More in English at UNHCR news …
