For refugees and immigrants rebuilding their lives in the United States, finding a job can be only one piece of a much larger journey. Learning English, navigating an unfamiliar workforce, translating international experience, and finding time for professional training while balancing work and family can all create barriers to meaningful employment.
At the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE), helping people navigate those challenges is central to its work. NICE serves refugees and immigrants throughout Nashville through services including resettlement, health, social services, education, immigration support, and career development.
Since August 2024, NICE’s Adult Education Department has partnered with Upwardly Global through UpGlo Connect, expanding clients’ access to career resources, industry pathways, credential evaluation, and skills training.
For NICE Adult Education Manager Jody Sostrin, the partnership helped address an important need.
“We had a deficit in that area around getting training for our clientele,” Jody said. “UpGlo’s industry pathways and asynchronous skills training offered an especially valuable solution for clients who may be working survival jobs or managing family responsibilities while rebuilding their careers.”
Meeting Professionals Where They Are
There is no single path for the people NICE serves. Clients come from around the world.
“Each client and each family is unique and has unique challenges,” said Bob Minton, Workforce Coordinator for NICE’s Adult Education Department. “Some are beginning to learn English, while others bring extensive professional backgrounds but face obstacles returning to their fields.”
That’s where individualized career coaching becomes important.
Dr. Kazim Hooshmand, Refugee Career Pathways Coordinator, works with Afghan refugees to identify their career goals and professional development needs, then connects them with relevant UpGlo opportunities.
“I identify their goals and needs, and we discuss it,” Kazim said. “Then based on that discussion, I search through Upwardly Global to see which course is the best fit for them.”
UpGlo resources are also incorporated into NICE classrooms and workforce seminars. During a resume workshop, Bob used UpGlo materials on action verbs, key skills, and job duties to help students strengthen how they communicate their experience.
For Bob, UpGlo provides a bridge between learning English and entering the professional workforce. As clients advance through NICE’s English classes, their next step may no longer be another language course. Through UpGlo’s resources, they can explore careers, learn about US workplace culture, strengthen interviewing and resume skills, and access professional training.
“We are not a big enough program to offer more than a few specific contextualized workforce classes,” Bob said. “This partnership increases the number of opportunities they have to receive training exponentially.”
Turning Learning Into Opportunity
The partnership is already showing progress. In 2025, NICE nearly tripled the number of clients who completed UpGlo industry pathways compared with 2024.
Behind that growth are professionals like Hamidula, an Afghan IT professional currently working in Nashville. Through the partnership, he pursued Salesforce training and completed two certifications. He continued learning even after NICE’s formal follow-up period ended.
Other clients have earned certifications, received evaluations of educational documents, and pursued training aligned with their career goals. NICE also used UpGlo recommendations to prepare NICE clients for a Medical Assistant community college course, with all three clients completing the program and finding Medical Assistant jobs.
The Strength of Partnership
As NICE enters its third year of partnership with UpGlo, the organization hopes to engage even more clients and expand its use of UpGlo’s talent network. The Upwardly Global Talent Network is a new initiative that uses UpGlo’s AI-powered tools and trusted employer partnerships to help qualified immigrant and refugee professionals gain more visibility with recruiters at top companies.
For Jody, the partnership demonstrates what becomes possible when organizations combine their strengths.
“Refugees and immigrants face a lot of difficulties and barriers. So that’s why partnerships like the one we have with UpGlo are important,” she said. “No person is an island.”
By working together, NICE and UpGlo are helping professionals gain more than skills and credentials. They’re creating pathways toward opportunity and helping refugees and immigrant professionals take meaningful steps toward careers that recognize everything they have to offer.
