FROM ECOSYSTEM INSIGHT TO SYSTEMIC ACTION

WorkMatch is advancing a scalable, transferable ecosystem model for migrant employment inclusion in Europe. WorkMatch is testing whether organizations can move from siloed service delivery toward shared infrastructure.

Why it matters

Across Europe, many organizations support migrants and refugees in accessing employment. Yet these efforts often operate in isolation. NGOs prepare candidates, employers search for talent, and public services run their own integration programs — but coordination across these efforts remains limited, and successful approaches rarely travel across contexts.

“A connected system that strengthens what already exists is how we unlock greater impact.” 

Jenny Walton, Refugee Employment Network

This fragmentation creates a system where newcomers encounter disconnected services, employers lack clear entry points to talent, and promising and innovative approaches rarely spread beyond their local context.

“From NGOs we hear ‘people are ready, where are the jobs?’ From employers we hear ‘where is the talent pool?’ WorkMatch sits in between.” 

Mihai Cepoi, Jobful 

What the pilot is testing

WorkMatch is testing whether employment actors can work from shared infrastructure rather than parallel programs. The pilot brings together experienced employment organizations to experiment with a coordinated model built around three elements:

• a shared toolkit for employment support organizations,

• digital journey tracking to understand and improve employment pathways,

• Employment Hub model that coordinates guidance, direct employment support and employment pathways/jobs/opportunities.

The pilot will be implemented primarily in the UK while drawing learning from partners in Finland and Romania. The aim is to understand whether a shared framework can strengthen collaboration, improve outcomes for newcomers, and make effective models easier to replicate across contexts.

The team behind this work

The pilot is implemented through a cross-country collaboration between organizations with extensive experience supporting migrant and refugee employment:

• Refugee Employment Network (REN)  with Jenny Walton and Anaïs Fahd in the UK serves as the lead implementation partner and host of the pilot.

• Jobful with Mihai Cepoi provides the technology infrastructure used by several of these initiatives.

• Startup Refugees with Mustafa Aal-Sahek in Finland and Jobs4ukr with Ana Secrieru in Romania contribute operational experience and learning from their own employment initiatives.

• Members of Ashoka's Hello Accelerator (including Ashoka Fellow Nelson Olanipekun) support the collaboration by contributing coordination, ecosystem connections, and strategic insight.

Over a 12-month period, this consortium will assess whether sharing insights and expertise on digital infrastructure, coordinated employer engagement, and structured cross-country learning cycles can reduce duplication and expand scalable labor market access for newcomers.

What we hope to learn 

The pilot is designed as a learning phase rather than a finished model. Over the course of the pilot, the partners aim to understand: 

• whether a shared employment hub model improves coordination between NGOs, employers, and public actors 

• how digital tools can support clearer employment journeys for migrants and refugees 

• what governance structures allow cross-country collaboration between organizations with different operating models 

• which elements of the model are transferable across contexts—and which depend on local conditions.   

The learning generated during the pilot will inform the development of an open toolkit and documented practices that other organizations can adapt to their own contexts. 

Call to action 

WorkMatch is part of the Hello Accelerator’s broader effort to prototype collaborative solutions that strengthen migrant inclusion systems across Europe and Latin America. 

Organizations, employers, and ecosystem actors interested in learning from or contributing to this pilot are invited to connect with Jenny Walton. For those interested in supporting the program, reach out to Ella Goncarova.