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One of the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡'s first priorities when refugees arrive in Northern California is to help employable adults secure jobs that will allow them to begin covering expenses and building a new life. Some clients arrive with the professional background and necessary skills to pursue a career similar to that in their home country. To help with this, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ offers career development programming to clients who have already secured their survival job and are interested and ready to move forward. 

On the weekend of August 19th and 20th 2017, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in Oakland hosted an Advanced Work Readiness Training for the six newest refugee clients enrolling into Oakland’s Career Development (CD) program. Coming from six different countries, these new CD clients participated in a 15-hour crash course focused on how to locate, apply for, and secure higher-skilled and higher-paying jobs in the Bay Area. The curriculum covered resume writing, job searching and digital literacy, applying for jobs, cover letters, interviewing and networking. Clients were introduced to best practices in the

American workforce. From improving their resumes and navigating job search sites like Indeed to writing cover letters and submitting job applications, attendees learned the content in the classroom and then moved to the computer lab where they were able to put their new skills to work.

One client was Rahmatullah, from Afghanistan. Rahmatullah studied civil engineering in university, but because of the war wasn’t able to pursue a career in this field. Instead, he worked in the financial sector, starting as an interpreter then working his way up to financial analyst and advisor. Having arrived in the US 15 months ago, Rahmatullah is getting a better grasp of what kind of jobs exist that are appropriate for his background, both in engineering and in finance. After attending multiple events set-up by the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡: including visiting the offices of Battery Ventures, and coming to Networking Night, Rahmatullah enrolled in the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡â€™s Career Development program. He recently enrolled into BankWork$, a free eight-week bank career training program. While he’s working on a long-term plan to return to civil engineering with the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ Oakland Career Development Team, in the short-term his experience working in finance coupled with the BankWork$ training program have set him on a path to help him achieve higher paying, higher-skilled work here in the US.

The highlight of the weekend was when two professional mentors shared their own stories, providing wisdom and insight into different types of industries, jobs, and approaches for finding higher paying, higher-skilled work. Next-up, these CD clients will be paired with professional mentors, attend one-on-one career coaching sessions, and make steps towards enrolling in training programs and applying for jobs in their areas of interest.

While the Oakland program is the most established in the region, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Jose and the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in Sacramento both have budding programs for clients resettled to those areas and this is a priority for future growth.