Work experience opportunities available through the job centre do not cater to people who have previously worked in highly paid and/or highly skilled roles in their country of origin. Are there other schemes where I can find work experience and jobs?

Yes! Please don’t be discouraged if you can’t find suitable jobs through the Job Centre. If you have access to the internet, whatever your profession, there will almost certainly be jobs advertised on relevant websites. I’ll leave those with specific journalism experience to help with the best sector links. However, LinkedIn can often be good starting point for professionals with a lot of experience: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/journalist-jobs. I wish you the very best of luck finding a role that fits your extensive expertise.

Dear Nissrin,

There are other avenues to find relevant work experience :

1- Join professional associations and networks related to journalism. I am not an expert in your field, but Google shows, for example, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) or the Chartered Institute of Journalists (CIoJ). These organizations often have job boards, networking events, and resources that can help you connect with industry professionals and find relevant opportunities.
2- Look for organizations that specifically support refugees in restarting their careers, such as the Refugee Journalism Project at the University of the Arts London and imix.
3- Consider offering your skills and experience on a freelance or project basis. This can help you build a portfolio of work in the UK. Reach out to journalists and media professionals in the UK for informational interviews.

Stay persistent, adapt to the local market, and continue to build your network. With time and effort, you can work towards re-establishing your journalism career in the UK.

Hi Nissrin, agree with all of the above, plus connecting to various networks on Linkedin that in your field. Best of luck in getting that experience!

Hi Nissrin, one thing I would add to the above comments which are all great, is to find some organisations you would like to work with and contact them directly, about gaining work experience.

If you are coming from a background where you ready have a lot of experience, it can be helpful to do something beyond your CV that shows particularly what transferable skills you have developed. An example of this might be a spreadsheet.

When you contact organisations to ask for work experience you may want to share this spreadsheet with them.

Rebecca

Hi Nissrin

Thanks for the question and you’ve received some great advice in the posts above that I cannot add much more to. However, I know there are certain companies, ours included, that are actively working to create work experience opportunities specifically for refugees with the aim to provide learning opportunities for all levels of experience. Unfortunately, we cannot provide experience for what you’re looking for in journalism but there may be other companies out there that can. I would connect with the Breaking Barriers team to see what opportunities there might be, as well as following some of the great advice already given above. Good luck!