The aim of “Employment At Last” is to improve opportunities for university graduates born outside Sweden to get jobs that they are trained and qualified for.
Madeline Mahdis Shahrokhi recently completed her traineeship in the Volvo Group’s truck production organisation. She is very satisfied.
“During these six months I learned a lot, gained more self-confidence and made useful contacts,” she says. She recently signed her first permanent employment contract.
“It’s wonderful. I’m starting at a consulting firm in Gothenburg where I’ll work as a project coordinator and responsible for HR – the thing I’m most passionate about.”
Madeline Mahdis Shahrokhi was born in Iran and is highly qualified, with many years of training in both engineering, sociology and communication. Despite this, she had great difficulty finding work in Sweden.
“I was told my surname was too hard to pronounce and wasn’t even given an interview. Now, I'm working with my dream job,” she says.
Kerstin feels it is important for the Volvo Group to help reduce this type of discrimination.
“It’s a waste of expertise if graduates born abroad can’t get the jobs they’re trained for. We have not so many vacancies at present, but in the longer term we’ll have a great need for highly qualified graduates and this is an important target group for us. That’s why we joined the initiative.”
Fifteen graduates did traineeships in the Volvo Group in 2015. Volvo’s aim is to increase the number of traineeships to 35 in 2016.
Facts:
The “Employment At Last” initiative was jointly started by Swedbank and the Swedish Employment Services in 2011. The Volvo Group joined in 2014.
The traineeship lasts six months and includes language training and individual work duties. Its purpose is to provide experience and knowledge.
