The program helping skilled refugees get jobs in Australia

Refugees with engineering qualifications are getting a new start in their careers and building Victoria’s major roads infrastructure thanks to a unique cadetship program.

A man wearing an orange hi-vis vest, dark sunglasses and a white hard hat

Abdulwahed Salloum always wanted to be an engineer.

Dressed in high-vis, wearing a hardhat, goggles and steel-capped boots, Tariq Zia arrives at a long stretch of roadworks in Melbourne’s southeast.

With a laugh, the 27-year-old says the biggest difference between building roads in Australia and building roads in Afghanistan is the safety precautions.
Tariq Zia (SBS).jpg
Tariq Zia, 27. Source: SBS News
“I worked for about three years as a structural design engineer."

"I had never worn safety boots before coming here. Here everything starts with safety and ends with safety, to make sure everyone is safe, happy, and at the end of the day, goes back to their homes.”
A group of men in Afghanistan standing inside a building
Tariq Zia (fourth from left) with a team of engineers inspecting the Darul Aman Palace site in Kabul.
Growing up in Afghanistan, it was his dream to become an engineer and fix the vital infrastructure of his community and his country.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Dawat University in the capital Kabul in 2015, he started his career at the Ministry of Urban Development and Land of Afghanistan. But working for the government made him the target of attacks by extremists.
Tariq Zia, wearing a gown and mortar board, at his graduation ceremony, standing next to his father.
Tariq Zia at his university graduation ceremony with his father.
"A car bomb explosion happened inside the car park," he says.

"I was lucky I survived — I was shielded by other cars. I was slightly injured, but I saw lots of colleagues killed and injured in that incident.
"I saw lots of people buried alive, screaming. It’s like a nightmare for me."

He decided to continue to work in Afghanistan after that explosion in 2018, but as rumours grew last year of the withdrawal of coalition forces he knew he’d have to flee.
Four men in hi-vis safety gear and hard hats on a road works site
Tariq Zia (centre) and Abdulwahed Salloum (right) on the work site.
He arrived in Australia on a humanitarian visa in June 2021, hoping to restart his engineering career, only to find his qualifications and experience were dismissed.

“We think we will have a very easy life but when I came to Australia I saw that idea was wrong. You have to fight, you have to work harder and harder to get a nice job, get your qualifications recognised.”

It’s a frustration Abdulwahed Salloum, 28, knows all too well.

“I applied hundreds and hundreds of times, never once getting an interview. Never once getting a chance to say ‘hey this is me, I’m more than just some text on a CV,’” he says.
A man wearing an orange hi-vis vest, clear safety goggles and a white hard hat, standing outside.
Abdulwahed Salloum dreamed of being an engineer since childhood.
His desire to become an engineer was set at the age of five when he was gifted his first Lego set. But after years of religious and ethnic discrimination, his family fled Syria, seeking peace and a chance to make a life.

He went to university in Malaysia and the UK, before arriving in Australia in 2018 on a skilled graduate visa designed to facilitate engineers to work in Australia. But with no local experience or connections, he says the only job he could get was on production lines, pick packing or delivering food.
Abdulwahed Salloum at his graduation ceremony
Abdulwahed Salloum at his graduation ceremony.
“I spent a month barely eating anything, maybe a piece of toast with Nutella once a day until I got lucky and got a nightshift job in a company and I could start breathing, " he says.

"I didn’t mind working that job, I would work any job. Even though when I got here, I was just looking to become an engineer, that quickly faded away.”
That experience sparked the creation of the Engineering Pathway Industry Cadetship (EPIC) program with Victoria’s major infrastructure projects.

Initially, cadets were recruited into level crossing removal works around the state.
I applied hundreds and hundreds of times, never once getting an interview. Never once getting a chance to say 'hey this is me, I’m more than just some text on a CV.'
Abdulwahed Salloum
Rajiv Ramanathan, from Major Road Projects Victoria, says it is the first batch of overseas-trained engineers building Victoria’s new roadways.

“These applicants keep getting the same knockback, saying 'no local experience, no local qualification.'''

"This program was specifically created to bridge that barrier, to provide local experience and a local qualification.”
Three men wearing hi-vis safety gear and hard hard hats on a road works site
Tariq Zia (centre) and Abdulwahed Salloum (right) on site in Melbourne's south east.
Research from HOST International, a refugee resettlement charity, shows only one in five skilled migrants in Australia have their qualifications recognised.

Mr Ramanathan says as many industries continue to battle a skills shortage, programs like this — connecting workers with the industries that need them — have become invaluable.

“There’s a huge amount of work happening across Victoria, across road, rail and bridge construction. We need more people and this is an untapped talent pool sitting in our own backyard.”
A man wearing an orange hi-vis jacket, clear safety goggles and a white hard hat
Rajiv Ramanathan says many industries continue to battle a skills shortage.
Describing the program as mutually beneficial, he says cadets get a salary, a graduate engineering certificate and, crucially, Australian work experience.

Around 70 engineering cadets have been admitted to similar programs in the past two years, with other states and industries in talks to replicate the program.

HOST International deputy CEO Mitra Khakbaz says the answer to Australia’s skills shortage is already in the country.
“Despite their skills, despite the willingness of the people wanting to work, despite the language competencies, it is really difficult for people to get into the job that they have already worked and have the experience and are able to fill the shortages we have.”

She says it requires a wider rethink of how industries and employers view new arrivals in Australia, to ensure refugees aren’t just assigned a job, but a chance to establish a life and a career.

“We need to think above and beyond diversity and inclusion and think about facilitating engagement, supporting people to bring their learning and experience from their country of origin and facilitate transition to a new community.”
Abdulwahed Salloum (left) and Tariq Zia look at photographs on a whiteboard
Abdulwahed Salloum and Tariq Zia look at plans for the new Latham Road project.
Mr Zia says he plans to finish his qualification and continue to advance his engineering career in Australia. With three sisters and his parents still in Afghanistan now living under Taliban rule, he also hopes to one day be able to bring them to Australia.

“I am the only financial support of my family, all the time I have that concern about what will happen to them over the next day. Hopefully, the government will allow me to bring them to Australia.”

For Mr Salloum, the cadetship has helped him achieve his lifelong goal of becoming an engineer, and the chance to leave a lasting legacy in his new home.

“Look at the pyramids, when you talk about them, they are a civil engineer project, " he says.

"When you talk about a civil engineer project, you’re leaving your mark there. My name will be forgotten one day but I know for sure I have contributed something to build that and leave it on the map."

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6 min read
Published 11 July 2022 4:18pm
By Abby Dinham
Source: SBS News


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