Who we are

At RefugeesCode Melbourne, we have one simple goal - we want to see people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds become software developers. 

To make that happen, we run programs to help people learn to code. And we run it in a way that people can work on real-world projects and collaborate with others like in real workplaces, so they will have the soft skills required for the job as well as the hard coding skills. Our students are from very diverse backgrounds.

We have people who have been through Australia's offshore torture centres, who have finished high school here with high marks but without pathways to further study because of their visa and this cruel system, who have been an engineer for the past 20 years overseas but can't get their skills recognised because where they are from. People have very different experiences in life but they have one thing in common - they work extremely hard and are keen to start their career in Australia.

We are confident we will have qualified people very soon, but you know how hard it is to find jobs when your name looks foreign, when English is not your first language or when your visa type doesn't sound familiar to the recruiters. So we want to talk to the big tech companies in Melbourne about setting up internship/graduate programs to get our students through the door.

Your role

We are looking for someone who speaks the corporate lingo, who can give them the numbers if they want numbers and tell them the stories if they want stories. 

Your primary role will be to build partnerships with companies to offer internship/graduate positions to our students.

Besides that, we also want to collaborate with other community organisations(ASRC, settlement services, refugee support groups, etc) so we can reach more people and be more helpful. And from time to time, we are screaming for more volunteers. You will be our ultimate people person.

We are goal-oriented, we don't micromanage people so you can decide how much time you put into this and how you want to do the work. From my experience, it takes about 6 - 8 hours a week when we are working hard to hit the goals and less when it's quiet.

How we do things

We are running on 100% volunteers with minimum funding. It is intended this way. With funding and grants comes paperwork and bureaucracy, no one likes to deal with that. 

Most of us are swift-minded professionals who enjoy using our privileges, connections and resources to help. We believe people are the solution to the problems, not money. And by skipping money, we skip a lot of the bullshit. So we promise you will get minimal bullshit with your time with us and maximum freedom on how you want to get things done.

Find out more about us on our website refugeescode.com and get in touch if you are interested!