Deakin CREATE (Centre for Refugee Employment, Advocacy, Training and Education) is an award-winning research centre that helps people from refugee backgrounds rebuild their careers in Australia, their new home. The CREATE Career Clinics are free eight-week career programs where highly qualified people from refugee backgrounds are teamed up with mentors from the business community to ...
Deakin University
Deakin CREATE (Supporting refugees and asylum seekers in career and education)
GOAL
$432,000
Australia > VIC > Metro and Regional
Field of Interest
- Education/training and employment
- Social inclusion and justice
Target Population
- Asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and people from CALD backgrounds
- People experiencing socio-economic disadvantage or vulnerability
Deakin University
Deakin University Charter
Deakin is driven by a spirit of curiosity and optimism, a place where ideas thrive, innovation flourishes and dreams take flight.
As a socially caring university, we are unwavering in our commitment to excellence in education and research that drives lasting impact for our students and our communities.
Together, we make the wonderful possible!
Deakin works hard to ensure higher education, employment and research are accessible to all. We value and celebrate diversity, embrace difference and nurture a connected, safe and respectful community.
Striving for future generations
Providing access to education is in our DNA. The generosity of our donors is instrumental in helping to create opportunities for students to realise their best potential.
Deakin CREATE has for the past 6 years coordinated and facilitated (on behalf of all 9 Victorian Universities) scholarship information sessions
for refugees and people seeking asylum.
Achievements of Deakin CREATE (Centre for Refugee Employment, Advocacy, Training and Education)
CREATE’s work and research have been recognised at state, national, and global level via the following awards:
Winner 2022 Green Gown Award International (Benefiting Society Category)
Winner 2021 Victorian Multicultural Award for Excellence
Winner 2021 Australasian Green Gowns Award: Benefitting Society
Winner 2021 PIEoneer Awards in the Championing Diversity category
Winner 2021 AACSB Innovations That Inspire Highlights
Winner 2021 Emerald Real Impact Awards: Interdisciplinary Research Award
Winner 2021 Deakin University Vice Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion
Winner 2020 AFR Higher Education Award: Equity and Opportunity Award
Project Summary
Deakin CREATE (Centre for Refugee Employment, Advocacy, Training and Education) is an award-winning research centre that helps people from refugee backgrounds rebuild their careers in Australia, their new home.
The CREATE Career Clinics are free eight-week career programs where highly qualified people from refugee backgrounds are teamed up with mentors from the business community to assist them in finding meaningful employment.
The CREATE Career Clinics are our flagship offering, making life-changing differences for a significant number of highly qualified refugees or asylum seekers who want to find a meaningful, professional role in Australia, instead of taking on low-skilled jobs that do not utilise their full capacity.
This underutilisation comes at a tremendous cost to those individuals’ own lives, but to the wider Australian community, through lost talent and significantly diminished social and economic capital.
The Clinics provide one-to-one mentoring, invaluable careers guidance, professional connections and knowledge to transform refugees and asylum seekers’ confidence and dramatically improve their career prospects and livelihoods.
Careers Clinics Program Overview
- Week 1: Mentee and Mentor induction
- Week 2: Introduction week: understanding career values
- Week 3: Career planning: understanding career adaptability
- Week 4: Personal brand, CV development and LinkedIn.
- Week 5: Cover letters, key selection criteria and referees.
- Week 6: Networking.
- Week 7: Interviewing.
- Week 8: Self-reflection, goal setting and support going forward.
CREATE Career Clinics: Delivery of 9 Career Clinics over three years (three clinics annually, each spanning eight weeks), tailored to support and empower 150 participants through structured career development pathways.
Project Outcomes
CREATE’s Career Clinics have consistently demonstrated substantial and sustained success in helping people from refugee backgrounds to achieve gainful and secure employment. The Clinics have a strong and sustained track record of success, supporting close to 1,000 participants and engaging more than 400 committed mentors. The program consistently delivers high-impact outcomes, with approximately 70% of mentees securing meaningful and stable employment or gaining access to further education within six months of completion. These Clinics have become a vital intervention in fostering equitable pathways to employment and education for individuals from refugee backgrounds across Australia.
Our specific focus is working with highly qualified individuals to find meaningful and decent employment commensurate with their skills, experience and qualifications. Our attendees are from more than 50 different countries. Our cohorts are usually 50:50 men and women though we also offer women-only clinics.
For mentors, we have seen a complete transformation in attitudes to refugees’ employment. The experience has a lasting impact on the participants and can create additional avenues of support and advocacy for refugee employment.
CREATE’s approach is deeply embedded in communities and shaped through strong partnerships with industry, government, and community organisations. Collaborations with partners such as Chobani, DECJUBA, Hume City Council, and the Salaam Foundation have been central to the program’s delivery and reach. This collaborative model has not only influenced policy and practice in the refugee and asylum seeker employment space within Australia but has also attracted international interest – the Clinic has been replicated in Canada and Germany.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $432,000
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