Employment for young Muslims
Employment for young Muslims
Author
Introduction
According to recent ONS figures, only 35% of all Muslim women between the ages of 16 and 64 are in employment. This has been made worse due to the impact of Covid-19 with a recent Muslim Census survey stating that 15% of Muslims have lost jobs as a result of the pandemic.
2021 Award
Arfah Farooq (CF 2017) is the co-founder of Muslamic Makers, a community of Muslim changemakers who work in technology and support and encourage other Muslims to upskill and enter the technology world. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she launched a highly successful careers mentoring programme, helping young Muslim students to learn new skills, meet professionals and build their confidence, with the support of a Covid-19 Action grant.
Arfah has been awarded one of our Activate grants to develop and expand Muslamic Makers into a self-sustaining social enterprise, in order to deliver both online and offline activities and scale up its careers programme to run twice a year. She will use her funding to hire a part-time programme and community manager to develop the careers programme as well as sponsorship packages, which will enable Muslamic Makers to expand its offering. She will additionally use the funding to trademark the company name in order to create local and regional chapters of the community across the UK. Alongside this, the funding will cover additional operational tools including subscription costs, equipment, and photographers and videographers to capture event content. She hopes this will create a resource to help young Muslims into careers and open up more opportunities for them.
Arfah’s Fellowship to Pakistan, the UAE and the USA in 2017 explored how to encourage greater participation in the technology sector among Muslim women.
2021 Award
Arfah Farooq (CF 2017) is the co-founder of Muslamic Makers, a community of Muslim changemakers who work in technology and support and encourage other Muslims to upskill and enter the technology world. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she launched a highly successful careers mentoring programme, helping young Muslim students to learn new skills, meet professionals and build their confidence, with the support of a Covid-19 Action grant.
Arfah has been awarded one of our Activate grants to develop and expand Muslamic Makers into a self-sustaining social enterprise, in order to deliver both online and offline activities and scale up its careers programme to run twice a year. She will use her funding to hire a part-time programme and community manager to develop the careers programme as well as sponsorship packages, which will enable Muslamic Makers to expand its offering. She will additionally use the funding to trademark the company name in order to create local and regional chapters of the community across the UK. Alongside this, the funding will cover additional operational tools including subscription costs, equipment, and photographers and videographers to capture event content. She hopes this will create a resource to help young Muslims into careers and open up more opportunities for them.
Arfah’s Fellowship to Pakistan, the UAE and the USA in 2017 explored how to encourage greater participation in the technology sector among Muslim women.