Calls for UK skilled refugee visa to tackle skills shortage

A leading online bank has urged the UK government to introduce skilled refugee visas to tackle skills shortages across the tech sector. Zopa Bank, which recently pledged to hire 50 professionals from Ukraine, has spoken to ministers about launching a skilled refugee visa, arguing that it will help address Britain’s technical skills shortage.

Sources close to the talks say that the aim of the skilled refugee visa is to ‘attract talent with strong tech backgrounds’, including coding, engineering or data science, who are currently in a country suffering a humanitarian crisis or armed conflict.

According to one source, the tech and skilled refugee visa would be ‘faster and cheaper than any existing UK visa’, and would include an ‘intensive English training course’ for candidates. Representatives of Zopa Bank said they plan to have further discussions with UK government ministers, plus city lobby group UK finance.

UK work visa pledge 

Amid the discussions Zopa, which gained its full banking licence back in 2020 and plans to float on the stock market later this year, has pledged to sponsor up to 50 UK work visas for eligible applicants from Ukraine, joining a consortium of companies offering to help, which includes AstraZeneca, Marks and Spencer, Nestle and Tesco.

Earlier this month, online fashion house Asos said that it was looking to hire ‘double digits’ of refugees in tech and engineering roles based in Britain because of Ukraine’s ‘strong skillset in this area’.

According to research published by WordSkills UK in 2021, while 60% of UK businesses think their dependence on advanced digital skills will increase over the next five years, the number of people taking IT subjects at GCSE level has slumped by 40% since 2015.

UK visa extension scheme

Calls for a skilled refugee visa come after the Home Office recently announced a UK visa extension scheme for Ukrainian nationals. 

The extension scheme is set to allow Ukrainian nationals, along with any partners or children, who had leave to remain in the UK as of 18 March 2022, or whose right to remain has expired since 1 January 2022, to apply for an extension.

The newly announced UK visa extension scheme comes after the UNHCR – the United Nations’ refugee agency – urged the government to extend family reunion rights to all Ukrainians in the UK.

Acting UNHCR representative to the UK, Larry Bottinick, said: “UNHCR is aware of seasonal agricultural workers who left their partners and children behind during the winter thinking they would only be separated for a few months.”

“They are now unable to go home, but also unable to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK. At such a distressing time for Ukrainians, it is important that the government takes all necessary steps to ensure that those seeking to be reunited with their families can do so,” Mr Bottinick added.

The extension scheme is set to come into effect on 3 May, 2022.

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