Investing in training, not accepting the first job that comes along, valuing the previous skills and previous professional and personal experiences, supporting and considering the dimension of individual professional desire: this is what the Work is Progress program does and today we will tell you how we supported one of our beneficiaries in the identification of his professional objectives, considering his unique characteristics.
Charaf is a young Nigerian asylum seeker who lives in a reception center in the suburbs of Milan. In his home Country, he has always worked as a mason, and in Italy he struggles to find a work in this sector, which often offers him only irregular and discontinuous job opportunities.
Charaf meets the staff of Work is Progress inside the host structure where he lives, our two job counsellors are in charge of the internal job service.
Charaf talks to them about his professional desire, expressing regret and frustration for the lack of recognition of his professional skills in Italy and for the precariousness of employment in the construction sector. At the same time, Charaf shows great determination and desire to learn new things and to qualify himself professionally, but many of the training courses he finds online foresee a registration fee and he cannot afford them.
In an in-depth interview with the job counsellor of the Work Is Progress, Charaf asks for support in finding a different work sector, where his professional skills can be recognized. After the negative experiences of exploitation and undeclared work, Charaf wants to enter in a large company that can offer greater stability and job security.
The staff of the program analyses with Charaf various jobs currently required by the labour market, presenting to Charaf the framework of the corresponding activities, and helping him to evaluate, also using photographs and videos, what the new job would look like.
After the negative experiences of exploitation and undeclared work, Charaf wants to enter in a large company that can offer greater stability and job security.
Charaf is encouraged not to rely on his educators and the program staff in the realization of this objective, but to look for training opportunities in Milan and hinterland.
With the aid of the program staff, Charaf is then supported in contacting various training organizations that provide professional training courses for welders, he is supported in comparing training proposals and decides to enrol in a course held by a large company in the sector.
The Work is Progress program financially supports Charaf in enrolling in this course and monitors his training. The program’s job counsellors are in constant contact with Charaf’s teachers, who say they are very satisfied with his progress and emphasize how the activity of welder responds to Charaf’s predilections and abilities.
At the end of the lessons, the training division of the company askes to receive Charaf’s CV to evaluate the possibility of an internship within the company or through other companies of the network.
Charaf is delighted and already dreams of being able to add training in new and more complex connecting techniques. Now he is not yet a finished welder, but he is ready to take his first steps in this world of work, to continue practicing and becoming more and more familiar with the use of tools. The Work is Progress staff will continue to support him: keep following us to know next steps of the story!
