Facing an employee shortage, Israel's high tech sector hopes to tempt Israeli workers abroad to come home and fill some 18,500 open jobs.
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Appropriately enough for the COVID era, a project from the Israel Innovation Authority dubbed Back2Tech is slated to launch on Wednesday, March 24, on Zoom.
The Back2Tech initiative wants to encourage Israeli tech workers living abroad to return to the country by guaranteeing them jobs. high tech workers who returned to Israel and tried to seek jobs in the sector will take part in the Zoom meeting.
Israel's CQ Global headhunting company won the tender to operate the program. According to Yotam Zucker of CQ Global, there are currently not enough high tech workers in Israel, with over 18,000 positions unstaffed, and the COVID pandemic has made many Israelis abroad want to return.
"If in previous years, we saw a movement of high-quality workers in Israel going abroad, today there is the opposite trend," Zucker said, adding that the professional challenges in Israel made work in the local high tech sector "very attractive."
Zuker also says that the prevailing view in the past was that the Israeli market was young and focused mainly on small startups that eventually sold to global companies. "Today, that perception is changing, and the market is maturing. Israeli entrepreneurs are turning startups into huge unicorn companies worth billions, leaders in their field, that keep activity and control in Israel.
"Even the global giants have realized the added value of Israel and are setting up R&D centers here that develop products for the entire world," he added.
According to current assessments, some 600,000 Israelis are living abroad, including some 10,000 with technological backgrounds. Some were sent abroad by their employers and stayed there, while others acquired technological education while there.
Back2Tech intends to bring candidates together with tech companies and startups in Israel that are line with their qualifications and experience. In some cases, the workers might be able to begin their new jobs remotely.
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