An Australian engineer of Pakistani origin, who helps refugees in starting their own business in Australia, has been awarded Commonwealth Young Person of the Year at a forum in London's QE2 Centre on Tuesday.  

Usman Iftikhar has been awarded Commonwealth’s highest honour  for young achievers eighteen months later after launching the programme. 

Prince Harry, the newly appointed youth ambassador of Commonwealth, presented him the award.

Iftikhar, who moved to Australia in 2013, represented Australia at the forum, presented the concept of helping migrants and refugees to find job opportunities based on his own struggle. 

Iftikhar was born in Pakistan and completed his Bachelor's degree from GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology. Later on, he moved to Aurtralia for his Masters in engineering management. 

He wrote in post for Medium, "After finishing a Masters Degree with Distinction at University of Wollongong, I had high hopes and big ambitions for my career. I had all the right ingredients on my resume yet, faced a major roadblock to finding any meaningful work in Australia."

He added, “After a couple of years of trial and tribulations — I realised that this problem was systemic and bigger than my personal experience."  

Later on, he co-founded Catalysr with an aim to help refugees and migrants develop their own business plans and make money using the skills they already have.

He further added, "Catalysr is the first startup incubator for refugees and migrants in Australia, enabling them to start their own business, create jobs for themselves and others and be in control of their own destiny." 

"Our approach is to provide an alternate pathway to people and unleash their untapped potential to help change the landscape not just for them but also their communities. We aim to provide the right conditions to accelerate that chain reaction in their life." he remarked.