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MEET THE CHANGE MAKER
LEAD THE WAY Elham Fardad is blazing a trail for fellow migrants F ortunately for the thousands of young migrants her charity has helped, Elham Fardad is not the kind of person who takes no for an answer. She arrived in the UK as a teen migrant in 1986 after her family fled Iran. Birmingham offered a refuge from the constant bombing she had endured, but her education was patchy. She changed school three times in as many years. After her parents separated, she assumed the responsibility to get to a good education and provide for her family as the eldest child. But Elham could not afford
camped outside Birmingham City Council’s offices for three days until an employee took pity on her. “I would have stayed a month – it was the only chance I had,” she says. Using her A-level in economics, Elham explained why an education and a professional career would benefit the country. She was bright, numerate, and eager to learn. She had already saved up some cash from teaching maths and selling perfumes door- to-door. The officials relented and she went on to study accountancy and finance. Within three years of graduating, she became a financial controller at US conglomerate GE. Elham adopted a similar approach when Warwick Business School rejected her application for an Executive MBA, believing her to be too young and inexperienced. “It was absolutely right,” she says. “I had excellent finance experience, but I was missing knowledge of business and management. That’s why I wanted to learn from older students.” After a 90-minute conversation with the admissions team, Elham became the School’s youngest ever Executive MBA student, aged just 25. Given this background, it’s no surprise that Elham has persuaded an army of mentors from her professional network and beyond to support young migrants. She felt compelled to start Migrant Leaders after the Parker Review found that ethnic minorities made up just two per cent of board members but 14 per cent of the UK population. “If you exclude non-executive directors, the figure would fall dramatically,” says Elham. Analysing the data herself, she discovered that first-generation migrants from ethnic minorities made up just 1.3 per cent of
boardrooms. All but one of those were privately educated. Elham, who feared she had abandoned her Birmingham roots after 23 years at prestigious firms, was ready to act. “I felt part of me was missing, but the Review energised me,” she says. “I realised it was not just an ethnic problem; it was a migrant problem too.” Young migrants face immense language, economic, and emotional barriers. These do not stop when they leave school, warns Elham. “I still remember that feeling on the first day of my graduate job,” she says.
Having already exceeded her initial goal, Elham aims to reach 10,000 young migrants. She believes that will benefit the UK economy. While second-generation migrants are more likely to gain degrees than their white British counterparts, they don’t do as well at work. They are less likely to be employed or to gain managerial roles, according to the Deaton Review by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. “That is such a waste for the country, as well as for them,” says Elham. “People come here to succeed – their families tell them that’s the way they will get out of poverty.” Elham can’t resist mentoring individuals in person, although she limits herself to 10 at a time. Soon after founding Migrant Leaders, she gave up her job as a senior manager at financial services giant EY to concentrate on leading the charity and raising her two children. She often fits in three hours of work before her family wakes. Elham believes this shows how anti- immigration rhetoric misses the point. “The country is disenchanted and it’s easy to point the finger at migrants, but they are net contributors to the UK economy,” she says. “I want us to be prosperous together. I wholeheartedly believe if we help migrant families achieve their goals, it will help the British economy and generate new industries and jobs. “Let us serve this country we owe so much to.”
Classmates : Elham at school in Iraq
“My heart rate soared because I felt so out of place. I had to learn how to present myself in the corporate world.” The charity has provided almost 3,000 young people with mentoring by more than 1,600 professionals at 95 FTSE 100 firms and other major organisations. Most applicants are sixth formers, who receive up to five years of mentoring, training, work experience, and networking to guide them into their first graduate job. And 14 per cent come from disadvantaged white British backgrounds. “It felt right to include them,” says Elham, who received a WBS Alumni Award for her work.
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the fees after being denied home student status. She
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