Steph Cousins, global CEO of Talent Beyond Boundaries. Photo: Christopher Hopkins
Co-founded in 2017 by Melbourne humanitarian and philanthropist John Cameron, Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) is a non-profit global skilled migration program that helps refugees to find meaningful work – in the fields in which they are trained, such as healthcare – in the face of systemic discrimination and other barriers, such a lack of passports and other documentation. Global CEO of TBB Steph Cousins spoke to delegates at the 2024 ANMF (Vic Branch) Delegates Conference.
Steph has more than 15 years of experience in non-profit leadership with a focus on human rights, refugee and development issues. She is a Churchill Fellow and holds a masters in public and international law from the University of Melbourne. She has been with TBB since the start.
She began her talk by introducing several of the individuals TBB has worked with, including Zaina and Bilal, both highly skilled Palestinian nurses who were living in Lebanon for many years, where they faced discrimination as refugees. With help from TBB, they were able to migrate to the UK where they received their local nursing registration and now work in the National Health Service.
Closer to home, Narges is an Afghani midwife with nearly a decade of experience who is in the process of migrating to Australia. ‘When the Taliban took over Afghanistan,’ Steph said, ‘it became no longer tenable for Narges to stay and, like so many women and families, she had to flee. We have to thank the ANMF Vic Branch for funding and introducing us and connecting her with Western Health, who are now sponsoring her visa.’
Tapping into displaced talent
There are about 120 million displaced people around the world today, who – like Zaina, Bilal and Narges – have skills and talents, Steph said. ‘Most of these people end up languishing for not only years but decades in countries where they often don’t have a right to work.’ Among the many flow-on negative effects of this is ‘a waste of talent and capability’.
And with so many ongoing global conflicts – and new or expanding ones, such conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar and Gaza – there is, Steph noted, ‘unfortunately an ongoing supply of displaced people, and we are not properly seeing the potential that these people can bring to our communities and societies.’
So this is what TBB does. ‘We’re putting the focus back on professional skills and expertise of people who are displaced. Our vision is a world where people who are displaced can safely migrate for work, like anybody else, and they can use their skills to rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose.’
In the seven years since TBB began, they have:
- helped thousands of displaced people find work in their field of expertise
- negotiated visa programs in seven countries, including the UK, USA, Ireland and Australia
- worked with 230 employees to recruit
- Seen a 94% retention rate of candidates with their employer.
More than 110,000 people – including 14,000 healthcare professionals – have signed up to what Steph calls ‘LinkedIn for refugees’: TBB’s talent catalog. Most have high English language capabilities, and 80 per cent have a bachelor’s degree minimum.
Steph Cousins, global CEO of Talent Beyond Boundaries, presenting at the 2024 ANMF (Vic Branch) delegates conference. Photo: Christopher Hopkins
Australia’s Skilled Refugee Labour Agreement Pilot
In Australia, Talent Beyond Boundaries has been working with the federal government to implement the Skilled Refugee Labour Agreement Pilot program, enabling employers to sponsor displaced people and bring them in on a work visa. It is available for workers in any of the 900 occupations in shortage in Australia, including nursing, midwifery and aged and disability care.
‘Candidates can start working in one profession and then move into another,’ Steph clarified. ‘This is really important for refugees moving into healthcare roles, because often, like Narges, they have been a qualified midwife in their country of origin, but to get licensed or registered is quite a process in Australia.’
‘So our process has been two-step, where we enable people to come into the country in an unregistered position, perhaps as a nursing assistant or personal care assistant. And then when they’re in Australia while they’re working, earning an income, they can undertake the steps required for AHPRA registration.’
Indeed, facilitating conversations with AHPRA around registration is one of the areas in which TBB has been working with ANMF.
The way they work
Talent Beyond Boundaries work directly with employers, and increasingly with unions to identify the right organisations to work with.
Once the right employer is found and matched with a candidate, TBB support them to access the skilled refugee pilot program and to sponsor workers through the program. Once visas are approved, they also assist with post-arrival integration and support, and stay in touch with the candidates for a year after their arrival to make sure that everyone’s doing well.’
‘Our pitch to employers, and to government, is that this is a smart thing to do, and it’s also the right thing to do. It’s smart because we have 14,000 healthcare workers who, because of their displacement, are prevented from being able to reach their potential in the sector. That makes no sense when we have a healthcare worker shortage.’
The right thing to do
It’s the right thing to do, Steph added, because it’s an ethical recruitment strategy.
In this respect, she had an appeal for ANMF delegates, and the wider membership: ‘We would love to talk to you if you have ideas, if you’re interested in the program and getting involved. If you know that there are vacancies in any of the workforces that you’re engaged with, or if you see this as a potential ethical recruitment stream for any employers and healthcare providers, then that would be a great conversation to have.’
The other way to get involved is by volunteering. ‘Every candidate that we work with has to do a job interview, and as we all know doing a job interview is incredibly stressful at the best of times, but imagine doing it when your whole life is on the line. So we make sure that every candidate who goes through the program has access to a mock interview, before they do a formal interview. So we’re always looking for volunteers who’ve got particular technical skills and might be able to help with the mock interviewing.’
