And more than three million Ukrainians have fled the conflict.
Businesses are now stepping up to support them find jobs, and resettle elsewhere in the world.
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It has been more than a month since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. To date, 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled their homes and looked to resettle elsewhere in Europe, and beyond.
However, once they have left Ukraine, a major challenge they face is the language barrier, as well as finding suitable employment.
Emma Sinclair, CEO of Enterprise Alumni, is working with charity RefuAid and big business to change this situation in the UK. Talking to the Financial Times, Sinclair said there was “an overwhelming desire to help refugees resettle and have meaningful lives, finding employment commensurate with experience”.
Examples of big businesses working to help Ukrainian refugees learn English, as well as provide training and recruitment support, are PwC, FDM and the PageGroup. M&S, ASOS and Lush are also participating in the business consortium.
They particularly want to work to link refugees’ skills with available jobs so they can do similar jobs to the ones they previously held back in Ukraine before the war.
Why are businesses taking part?
Talking about the initiative, Kevin Ellis, chair and senior partner at PwC, told the FT a “profession is part of someone’s identity — we want to use our strengths as a training business to support refugees into the right work for them”.
“We want to use our strengths as a training business to support refugees into the right work for them”. Our chairman @KevinJDEllis on joining a scheme to help Ukrainian refugees find jobs https://t.co/5ihbM2iQTq
PageGroup chief executive Steve Ingham noted that the consortium would “provide talent to UK businesses that are crying out for skilled employees, as well as break down entry barriers to employment for the Ukrainian refugees”.
Lush continued to the BBC that it was “happy to consider refugees for any role, even those we would usually advertise for internal candidates only”.
It added Lush recruiters are meeting with the Refugee Council charity next week to “share what potential opportunities there are across the business”.
RefuAid co-founder and CEO Anna Jones noted on Twitter:
Thrilled to be working alongside these industry-leading businesses to support as many people who’ve fled war and conflict back into employment. There is so much work to do and this is such a fantastic step in the right direction #WeAreOnehttps://t.co/gT4iCl8DoM
The next step for Sinclair and RefuAid’s consortium is to persuade more companies to support Ukrainian employees in finding jobs. It seems a second wave of almost 120 companies will be announced in April.
Other employers stepping up
PwC, M&S, Lush and ASOS are not the only employers stepping up to upskill, train and offer jobs to Ukrainian refugees globally.
The Tent Partnership for Refugees is carrying out a similar initiative globally. In announcing new corporate partners, founder Hamdi Ulukaya noted: “Businesses have a responsibility to be part of the solution, bringing their innovation, their resources, and their voice to support displaced people around the world.
“More and more companies are realizing that it is our collective duty to stand up for our common humanity – and we must continue to show our compassion and support for all refugees as they restart their new lives.”
The long-term plan for the Tent Partnership is to work with businesses to hire Ukrainians so they can financially support themselves and their families.
Examples of the employers the Tent Partnership is working with so far are Amazon, FedEx, Ubisoft, Unilever, Shopify, Hilton and Deloitte.
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