Kazi really wasn’t planned and only came about when I met this man. He had qualifications and previous work experience in East Africa, so when he moved to Australia, he thought that he would be able to get a job in his field. However, four years passed, and he was still driving a taxi. I thought it was very strange and wondered why this was the case. A few days later, I met another group of young educated African migrants, and they were in a similar predicament. From there, I decided to survey university-educated migrants, and I really wanted to look at their level of qualification and whether this matched their current job in Australia. Interestingly, I found that many people were overqualified for their jobs or in fields that didn’t even align with their qualifications. To me, this meant that there were systemic issues at play that were creating barriers to work. People come to a new place and have the degrees and have the skills, but if they don’t understand the Australian job market and how it works, how can they access employment? That’s where people can get a little bit stuck. 

What I realised was that there are practical ways we can improve this issue. I remember one of my first participants at Kazi had twenty years of experience, overseas and a CV that was eight pages long. One of the first things I did was I worked with her to cut that down to about two pages, and she got a job. This made me realise that there’s a space here to work with people and help them secure employment in a practical sense. That’s why I started Kazi, and it’s why we provide free workshops on resume writing and preparing for interviews. We also try and create professional networks where people can support each other throughout the process.