The Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign’s (CRRC) employment program has recently had its first major success since it was set up last year, with Alaa, a refugee who arrived in the UK from Syria three years ago, being offered a three-day trial period working at a dairy farm near St Ives.

Ann Goodridge, who leads a team of six volunteers running the employment program at CRRC, said that paid work is vital for refugees to be able to integrate into their new communities, learn English, and feel like a valued member of society.

Goodridge said that many refugees have extensive experience in farming, gardening, and catering, but because of a lack of formal qualifications can only find work as cleaners. Alaa, who was a dairy farmer in Syria before coming to the UK, had been working as a cleaner until now.

Through the program, refugees can get a CV produced for them and receive advice and training on establishing their own businesses at the Business and Intellectual Property Centre in Cambridge Central Library and the Entrepreneur Refugee Network.

Refugees are also offered employment experience with companies that work with CRRC, including construction, manufacturing, and gardening companies as well as National Trust properties. Anglesey Abbey, a stately home six miles northeast of Cambridge, takes on refugees as volunteers, which allows their families to visit the property and its gardens free of charge.

Alaa was previously able to get six-days unpaid work experience at the Cambridge University Farm’s dairy enterprise.

CRRC was formed in 2015 and gained charitable status two years later. Its 200 volunteers work with 27 families, most of whom have been resettled from Syria under the UK government’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS). The VPRS was launched in January 2014. It coordinates closely with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and local authorities, including Cambridge City Council, to resettle vulnerable refugees from camps in the Middle East.

Catherine Walston, the head of Communications and Outreach, told Varsity that almost all refugees speak only Arabic and often find contact with the healthcare and education systems difficult. CRRC volunteers work to settle families into their new lives in the UK and provide English lessons on top of those offered by the City Council, as well as assisting with driving test preparation and finding childcare and private accommodation at reduced rates.

Other refugees have also benefited from the CRRC employment program, with one securing their food handling certificate, a crucial step in establishing their own catering business.