Welcome to the employers' pages of our website

Bridges has been working with the asylum, refugee and migrant communities since 2002 developing over the years a number of support packages and programmes for our client groups to assist their social and economic integration.

The key to Bridges success, and its unique element, is that we engage with employers at every stage of our work and have developed specific parts of the programme with employers input and at their suggestions. Employers are our most important partners. We have employer partners from the private sector, public sector and the third sector. We work with large companies like BUPA and Hilton International as well as smaller businesses too.

To support employers we offer them a range of options for working with us, and in return we provide support and training if needed. We hope that once you have begun to work with us, at whatever level, that we will build on that relationship to our mutual satisfaction.

If you are an employer who regularly tenders, or wins contracts, for procurement that insists on building in a Community Benefit clause, then working with Bridges is one way of meeting that requirement.

The Bridges client

There is no such thing as a typical Bridges client but there are some general observations we can make:

• 50% of our clients are women
• 75% of all our adult clients worked in their home countries
• Over 55% are educated to College level or above
• Most are bilingual if not tri lingual
• Many clients who have permission to work have been out of the labour market for 5 years or more and so are desperate to re-engage with their skills (as asylum seekers the UK government does not allow them to work, and the asylum process can take a very long time).

Interested in working with us?

If you are an employer who would like to participate in any of our programmes, please get in touch with Elizabeth Porter, our Senior Case Worker/Employer Engagement lead on elizabethporter@bridgesprogrammes.org.uk, 0141 445 4464. Or if you are in the construction industry or related fields please contact our specialist adviser for this sector, Colin Woodward at colinwoodward@bridgesprorammes.org.uk, 0141 445 4464.