It’s incredible the difference a year can make. Back in January 2024, Breaking Barriers’ Glasgow operations were still in their infancy. Staff were sharing a phone to speak to clients and partnerships in the city were just beginning to emerge.
Fast forward to today, and we now have three colleagues and more than a dozen volunteers based in Glasgow, with a dedicated space for themselves and our clients. The team has established new connections to enhance support systems for refugees and has had the pleasure of working with 85 clients on their journey to meaningful employment.
And we are delighted with recent feedback. One hundred percent of our clients said they felt more motivated to meet their goals after gaining support from Breaking Barriers, 87% said they now had a better chance of finding a job, and 97% said they had improved their understanding of what is needed to do well in their preferred sector.
Supporting refugee clients in Glasgow
With Glasgow-based clients receiving 542 hours of personalised support and 40% going on to achieve positive outcomes in employment, education, volunteering or training, it’s been a productive 12 months, to say the least.
Nearly a quarter of our clients secured employment, putting them on track to work towards their long-term goals. This included two individuals who successfully gained roles in food production, which they will use a stepping stone while they work towards reestablishing their medical careers.
Our team helped one client gain her first job in the UK as a trainee catering assistant, alongside which she plans to undertake a course in data analytics, while another celebrated gaining a masters scholarship in Big Data Technologies at Glasgow Caledonian University
Meanwhile, we’ve been proud to share Esraa’s story of securing a role as an Employer Engagement Officer, helping other refugees overcome barriers to employment.
Most people think that you should focus on low-profile jobs in your early days in the UK, but Safia [Breaking Barriers’ Employment Advisor] saw my potential and helped me gain the confidence to apply for jobs where I could develop my skills.
Esraa
Workshops and training
Our clients enjoyed NHS career insights workshops thanks to NHS Education for Scotland. The sessions explored job families and roles, application processes, and communication skills. They also featured a VR simulator and taster English language activities.
One client supported by the Glasgow team attended all four of these workshops, while also securing employment as a support worker. He aims to build up his UK work experience as he progresses towards his dream job in the NHS.
Glasgow-based volunteer Daniel Calvert, a linguistic ethnographer, supported clients and conducted research on language services for refugees. Daniel’s PhD research, focusing on language support for non-native English speakers, aims to influence policy improvements within the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
Building new partnerships
With collaboration at the heart of our work, we joined forces with Global law firm Ashurst to run an employability workshop providing refugee clients with advice on CVs and cover letters.
Breaking Barriers was recognised as an employability provider for Glasgow City Council’s Glasgow Guarantee Programme, which aims to support the city’s residents into fair work opportunities.
The team also partnered with charity Screen Share to distribute laptops to three clients and worked with Only a Pavement Away to help clients secure employment in the hospitality sector.
What’s next for Glasgow?
Our clients are at the centre of everything we do and every decision we make, and our clients’ successes are really important to us. Whether it’s somebody securing a full-time job that achieves their personal goals, or perhaps a client being invited to their first ever job interview in the UK, we'll continue to celebrate all our clients’ achievements and champion the value that refugees bring to the workplace.
Euan McLeod
The Glasgow team are now setting ambitious goals for 2025, which include enriching partnerships to create opportunities that will build clients’ numeracy, digital, and ESOL skills, participating in steering groups with Glasgow City Council, and testing and piloting new ways of working.
“We are very proud of our team’s achievements throughout our first year actively supporting clients in Glasgow. We are not resting on our laurels, however. In the year ahead we aim to support even more refugees in Glasgow and create more partnerships within the sector to enable us to do this. Our ongoing collaboration with the Scottish Refugee Council, Bridges Programme, and five other local employability support providers, to organise a Refugee Jobs Fair in March 2025 is a fantastic example of this in practise,” said Euan McLeod, Breaking Barriers’ Senior Employment Services Manager in Glasgow.
“Our clients are at the centre of everything we do and every decision we make, and our clients’ successes are really important to us. Whether it’s somebody securing a full-time job that achieves their personal goals, or perhaps a client being invited to their first ever job interview in the UK, we’ll continue to celebrate all our clients’ achievements and champion the value that refugees bring to the workplace.”
The Breaking Barriers team will be taking part in the Refugee Jobs Fair in Glasgow on 20 March. If you are a Scottish employer, you can now book a stall or register your interest in the event.
