Ahmad: breaking barriers with engineering skills
Image: A magenta border, with a fully lit Hanukía in cyans, in white: "Eight Refugee Stories for Chanukah" and the Birmingham Progressive Synagogue logo, "celebrating Birmingham as a City of Sanctuary". Centrally on white, in cyan: Ahmad, Breaking barriers with engineering skills.
Ahmad graduated as an electrical engineer in Pakistan. He arrived in the UK in 2021 and applied for asylum. After a year he was allowed to apply for permission to work. He was lucky that engineering was on the shortage occupation list, and he found some work as a fibre optics engineer. Breaking Barriers, a charity supporting refugees into work, helped him with interview skills and job applications for his next job, and now he is on a graduate scheme at a process automation company, with ambitious work plans ahead.
Adapted from:
Breaking Barriers Impact Report FY 2023-2024 https://breaking-barriers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Breaking-Barriers-Impact-Report-FY2023-2024.pdf