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Ben Maruthappu's firm to recruit 500 Afghan refugees

Ben Maruthappu's firm to recruit 500 Afghan refugees

ONE of Britain's largest providers of care for people in their homes on Thursday (26) committed to training 500 Afghanistan refugees to work as carers.

Cera, which currently employs over 6,000 staff across more than 70 offices in England, Scotland and Wales, hopes to recruit the refugees arriving under Britain's resettlement programme over the next five years.


Ben Maruthappu Ben Maruthappu

The start-up, founded in 2016, provides services such as social care, nursing and repeat prescriptions for people in their own homes, carrying out more than 30,000 visits each day.

"Over the next five years, our goal is to support them in this journey by offering a pathway into not only gainful employment, but an enormously rewarding career in one of the UK's most important sectors," said Ben Maruthappu, co-founder and chief executive of Cera.

"If we can play even a small role in helping those arriving from Afghanistan, that's an opportunity we're keen to grasp with both hands," he added.

The company said in a statement that it will work with more than 160 local councils and central government to train the recruits.

Cera has previously retrained staff in industries hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

London has already evacuated 5,500 former Afghan staff who worked alongside Britons and their families and aims to welcome 20,000 refugees in the long-term under the Afghanistan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme.

(AFP)

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