In July 2020, the EMEN project launched a call to identify migrant-led programmes that support migrant entrepreneurs to set up and develop their business. The three winners of this call have been invited to be speakers of the “Migrants know better what to do session”:

• Zidi Circle by Fridah Ntarangwi
• FinallyVC by Yama Saraj
• #GoingFar by Talita Holzer

#GoingFar at a glance!

City where it is implemented

Dublin, Ireland

Starting date

2018

In which field does it support ME

Mentoring, training, networking

Summary

#GoingFar is a non-profit organisation created with the specific goal to support migrant professionals in Ireland to achieve their career goals, with a focus on women and non-binary people. The organisation’s mission is to accelerate the development of diverse migrant professionals, by giving them the tools to learn new skills, find employment and/or set up their own businesses.

The small, 100% voluntary team is composed of six migrant women, who are dedicated to offering value to the migrant community in Ireland through:

• Workshops to help individuals to get their dream job, set up their own business or simply up-skill
• Talks/Panel Discussions with amazing, diverse, experienced professionals in tech, entrepreneurship, and others, who can share insights on their success
• A 1-1 mentoring programme with experienced mentors, for free
• Free tickets to conferences organised by partners such as SaaStock, Future Human and 3XE Digital.
• Connections to the right people and companies, depending on the person’s needs

#GoingFar started as part of Start-up Week Dublin 2018, as an initiative to address a key problem – while there were several community events to address gender inequality in the workplace, there were very few initiatives to support the migrant professional community in Ireland. A speed-mentoring event was organised with more than 20 mentors and 35 migrant professionals. What was supposed to be a once-off event, became a long-term initiative, thanks to the highly positive and energised feedback from the participants.

Why is it a good practice?

100% migrant led-organisation providing comprehensive and individual training and mentoring plus access to a strategic alliance.  Today, #GoingFar has impacted over 200 migrant professionals in Ireland by providing 1-1 mentoring, workshops, access to conferences, and more. The team has created key strategic partnerships to support its expansion in the country, including well-known companies like Microsoft, Salesforce and DocuSign. These connections allow the migrant community to tap into the vast expertise present in these companies, while also encouraging accomplished Irish and migrant professionals to give back to this community.

#GoingFar more in-depth:#GoingFar stands for diverse migrant professionals in Ireland

#Goingfar CEO and founder Talita Holzer are passionate about solving problems that have a meaningful impact on people’s lives. With the objective of accelerating the labour market integration of migrant women and non-binary people in Ireland, Talita launched the #Goingfar initiative. What was supposed to be a once-off event in 2018, became a long-term initiative that has supported more than 200 people in this country.

For most people, it is a big challenge to climb the corporate ladder or start a new business. Doing that in a different country, without a support network, not knowing the language, and with no knowledge of the workplace culture can be overwhelming.

On top of that, it is very common for qualified migrants to take a career break when moving to a new country – to learn the language or get acquainted with the new culture – making it difficult for them to return to their areas of expertise.

#GoingFar started as part of Start-up Week Dublin 2018, as an initiative to address a key problem – while there were several community events to address gender inequality in the workplace, there were very few initiatives to support the migrant professional community in Ireland. A speed-mentoring event was organised with more than 20 mentors and 35 migrant professionals. What was supposed to be an ad hoc event, became a long-term initiative, thanks to the highly positive and energised feedback from the participants.

Today, #GoingFar has impacted over 200 migrant professionals in Ireland by providing 1-1 mentoring, workshops, access to conferences, and more. The team has created key strategic partnerships to support its expansion in the country, including well-known companies like Microsoft, Salesforce and DocuSign. These connections allow the migrant community to tap into the vast expertise present in these companies, while also encouraging accomplished Irish and migrant professionals to give back to this community.

Talita tells us that her main challenge was to try to scale #GoingFar by herself for the first year, and although she was able to organise meaningful workshops and talks, it was quite difficult to bring her vision to reality on her own. She decided then to try and find people with a similar passion who could help her and initially brought in someone to manage partnerships and another person to work on branding and digital marketing. Since then, more people have asked to join their initiative and help out in other ways, and it has been growing organically at a good pace.

The vision they have in mind for #GoingFar is nowhere near done. The team intends to offer more well-structured training to the migrant community to support them in not only finding employment but thriving in it. They also plan to start working directly with companies to educate them about common issues migrant professionals face in Ireland and how to address them – including removing biases from their recruitment processes and creating more diverse teams. Although these goals are quite ambitious, their team has a good feeling they have the right skills, dedication and strategic alliance to accomplish the intended roadmap in a near future.