The CIPD Trust is delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with City & Guilds Foundation.

The CIPD Trust shares a mission with the City & Guilds Foundation to remove the barriers to meaningful work, particularly with refugees who have some of the highest rates of unemployment in the UK.

The unemployment rates for refugees in the UK is four times higher than the UK average and through this partnership, the CIPD aims to encourage people professionals to collaborate on toolkits to help businesses hire refugee employees.

The partnership will work with refugees from across the world who have settled in the UK and who have the right to work.

Never has such a partnership been more important as research from Cardiff University and the University of Birmingham reveals that employment is the single most crucial factor in the successful integration of refugees.

Refugees are often forced to take jobs that are not commensurate with their experience and skills – 1 in 5 refugees has to take any available job rather than one matching their skills.

The aim is also to work with charities across the UK to help individuals gain access to bursaries and CIPD qualifications as well as skills building courses from City & Guilds Foundation.

Sally Eley, Head of CIPD Trust, said; "Partnering with City & Guilds Foundation makes it possible for us to innovate and change lives. Working with our membership, we are creating a more representative profession to influence the world of work and in turn create a more inclusive society."

Faiza Khan MBE, Director of Corporate Affairs & Foundation at City & Guilds said; "This project will go a long way to help more people access support to join the workforce, and help organisations address their urgent skills gaps and vacancies."

"It is only through genuine collaboration that we can make change happen, which is why the City & Guilds Foundation is so pleased to partner with the CIPD Trust to deliver our shared purpose of a more equitable and accessible world of skills and work."