World Jewish Relief has welcomed a new scheme unveiled today by the Home Office. The Home Secretary and Archbishop of Canterbury have launched a new initiative to encourage community groups to support refugees.

The Home Office highlighted our work supporting refugees at the launch. We have designed and funded an employment and training programme to help Syrian refugees to obtain jobs in the UK.

The programme was launched in February and its pilot programme is being delivered by Horton Housing Association in Bradford. Refugees on the programme are given support throughout the recruitment process, in gaining necessary qualifications and identifying and applying for suitable jobs.

World Jewish Relief hopes to replicate the programme elsewhere in the UK and have set a target to support 1,000 of the 20,000 Syrians arriving under the vulnerable persons scheme to integrate into British life over the next five years.

Paul Anticoni, World Jewish Relief’s Chief Executive, said: “We very much welcome the Home Office’s sponsorship proposals which will ensure vulnerable people fleeing conflict receive English language tuition to help them integrate and training to enable them to find employment and become self-sufficient. World Jewish Relief’s experience supporting Syrian refugees in the UK and around the world shows that language and employment assistance are vital to the long-term success of displaced people and this is what our pilot programme in Bradford seeks to achieve.”