A leading diversity campaigner has called on organisations
to employ refugees to meet skills shortages.
Lord Taylor, a barrister and director of Warwick Leadership
Foundation, claimed that asylum-seekers and refugees are a potential solution
to the UK skills crisis.
Lord Taylor told conference delegates, "We have got a
huge skills shortage in this country and diversity can help reduce that.
Seventy five per cent of all refugees are professionally qualified and we have
got them cleaning toilets or not working at all. It’s a scandalous waste of
talent."
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He urged employers to increase diversity but be pragmatic in
achieving this. "There needs to be an ongoing and intelligent debate on
diversity," he said.
