Firm news | July 18, 2023

The Ukrainian Professional Support Center helps Ukrainians find work in Sweden

Imagine having to leave your country and start over in a foreign place, where you know no one and don't speak the language. This is the reality for millions of Ukrainians, but those who ended up in Sweden have found an engaged and reliable helper and advocate in the Ukrainian Professional Support Center UPSC.

“Our center was created to help newly arrived Ukrainians integrate into the Swedish labor market. We search for job opportunities within Swedish businesses and match them with Ukrainian talent, creating value for both sides, free of charge” explains Community Lead Yuliia Holovlova (pictured) at the Ukraininan Professional Support Center.

UPSC works closely with Swedish employers, educational providers, recruitment companies, governmental institutions, and social projects, focusing on vacancies that do not initially require Swedish language skills.

“We provide open jobs, recruitment events with Swedish employers, career events and educational courses that help develop skills essential for the job search process. We try to help people to update their skills or to get a job directly.”

UPSC started in Spring 2022 as a project within the non-profit organization Beredskapslyftet (the Skill Shift Initiative) together with several leading Swedish recruitment companies. In the Summer of 2022, UPSC applied for support from the European Social Fund and now the project is fully financed by ESF. In the beginning they had a team of five. Now, they employ circa 20 people, eager to help both the Ukrainian community and Swedish employers.

The center has already helped over 360 Ukrainians to find a job, and hundreds have participated in the events and educational courses. They are rapidly gaining momentum and have ambitious goals to find jobs for even more Ukrainians.

“There are many educated and qualified Ukrainian professionals in finance, project management, IT, legal and other professional areas that are eager to find a job in Sweden. Many of them speak English, a majority is studying Swedish and some of them even speak Swedish on the intermediate level. Sweden needs talents. But there are some barriers, and our task is to lower them.”

Continuous planning of new activities

There is still a great need for assistance from the UPSC, even though a great deal of activities have been implemented and even more are in the pipeline.

“We work together with Irisgruppen as an educational partner on courses in English (or Swedish) for the hospitality business, and motivation and self-esteem. We also have our own educational products such as “Live and Work in Sweden” and career guidance courses, which are available in the Ukrainian language. We have launched an employability workshop together with Accenture, and numerous recruitment events have been held in Roschier’s offices, which we are very thankful for,” says Yuliia and continues:

“We have halso eld events with LinkedIn, which the aim of helping people create and develop their LinkedIn profiles. Many people in our data base have very good experience and background, which is why we were able to provide more than 30 recruitment events for the hospitality, care, IT, finance and accounting, legal, and educational industries. We are trying to find open job opportunities for people with different backgrounds and aspirations.”

Collaboration with external actors is crucial

“We are happy to have strong partners such as Roschier and Novare, the founder of Beredskapslyftet. They help us a lot with their professional networks, facilities, administrative and legal support. They bring innovative ideas and help establish contacts with potential employers.”

The UPSC also collaborates with recruitment companies and other organizations and institutions.

“We are incredibly happy with support we receive from the Swedish community and businesses. We warmly welcome all companies to collaborate with us. All services that our center provides are free of charge for both job seekers and employers. Also, if you have some vocational or educational opportunities, we will be happy to cooperate with you.”

Finding a job through UPSC

Olha Hushchyna, now a financial controller at Green Growth Nordic AB, found her first job in Sweden with the help of the Support Center.

“I am an economist by profession, I worked on the development of enterprises from the point of view of developing business processes and related accounting. Thanks to the help of the Ukrainian Professional Support Center, in the shortest possible time I found a place of work where I can fully use my experience, and this is wonderful!”

What has the support meant to you?

“Like many other Ukrainians, who have found themselves in a new country, saving my child from war, I was not ready for a new situation. I had no language, no relatives, no friends, no experience in finding a job in an unfamiliar environment. But thanks to the Swedish government and the UPSC I have received vital support at its best, that has been unbelievably valuable, without any exaggeration. I sincerely wish for everyone who needs it to find a new job, and for the center to continue to carry out such necessary activities.”

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The Ukrainian Professional Support Center is a part of Beredskapslyftet (the Skill Shift Initiative), which acts as a platform for the mobilization of resources from the business sector in support of society in times of crisis and in other matters where the business sector has something unique to contribute. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Beredskapslyftet has participated in various initiatives to support Ukrainian families in Sweden.

Roschier has been closely involved in Beredskapslyftet since the start, providing legal assistance on a pro bono basis, and with Roschier Partner Malin Leffler as the Chair of Beredskapslyftet. We have offered support in concrete ways, such as donating laptops, providing financial support for various projects and by opening our offices to a summer youth academy.