Ethiopian Israeli University Graduates

Employment, Empowerment, and Leadership for Ethiopian Israeli University Graduates

Project Background/Need:

Ever since the first waves of Ethiopian immigration, the Ethiopian Israeli community has faced numerous hardships on its path to successful integration. Even today, this sector still struggles with various obstacles, including below-average income per capita, a high unemployment rate, and low levels of enrollment in institutions of higher education. While over 4,500 Ethiopian Israelis have overcome all odds and completed post-secondary education, less than 15% are employed in jobs compatible with their degrees. This not only impacts the Ethiopian Israeli community's overall income rate (which is half the rate of the general Israeli public) but also discourages Ethiopian Israeli youth from pursuing higher education.

As a result, Olim Beyahad established "Employment, Empowerment, and Leadership for Ethiopian Israeli University Graduates" – the organization's coreprogram - in order to help excelling Ethiopian Israeli University graduates find suitable employment opportunities and properly integrate into their new jobs and Israel's workforce. By affording them this opportunity to gain respectable employment, we strive to give the underprivileged Ethiopian Israeli population a second chance at successful and permanent absorption into society. We believe that the excelling university graduates will serve as role models in their communities and inspire hope, belief, and motivation – especially amongst youth. This will cause other members of the community to seek university degrees, become part of Israel’s working world, and eventually eliminate society’s prejudices and stereotypical images of this sector.

Target Population:

Excelling Ethiopian Israeli university graduates, aged 21 – 40, who hold degrees in a variety of professions (e.g. Law, engineering, economics, etc.), but are currently unemployed or unsuitably employed.

Project Goals:

• To integrate excelling Ethiopian Israeli university graduates into suitable employment positions in the forefront of Israel's workforce.
• To provide participants with employment-related life skills and tools to enable them to succeed at their jobs.
• To ensure participants' long-term vocational success.
• To eliminate social stereotypes and show society that Ethiopian Israelis are capable of succeeding.

Method/Project Description:

In the framework of the program, the organization selects 70-100 initial program candidates out of the hundreds of applicants who usually apply to our program each year. All candidates are directed to our pool of over 300 companies and individuals that support the program by employing its participants. Candidates are given three months in which to gain employment, as successful job placement is a condition for being accepted to the full program. During these three critical months, we provide the candidates with professional guidance and assistance to help them gain job acceptance.

Candidates who are successful in finding jobs are accepted as full-fledged participants of our program. The program consists of three aspects:

• An Employment Excellence and Leadership Program– Helps participants excel in their new jobs, providing them with numerous lectures and workshops on leadership, handling intercultural conflicts, and acquiring life skills. Participants also learn how to deliver presentations, manage projects, present themselves effectively, improve their interpersonal communications, etc. Following the completion of this program, participants who have displayed exceptional leadership qualities and commitment to the program are invited to apply for our Leadership Program .
• English Course and English Tutors- Participants take part in an English course and receive assistance from personal English teachers with the goal of improving their proficiency in the English language. For more information.
• Personal Mentors– Each participant is paired with a personal mentor – a professional working in the same field as the participant - who accompanies the individual closely throughout the year and helps him/her work through any problems that arise in the workplace. For more information.
• The rationale of our “Employment, Empowerment, and Leadership for Ethiopian Israeli University Graduates” program is that by successfully placing participants in leading jobs, these individuals will serve as role models for the entire Ethiopian Israeli community and the rest of society, as well, empowering the Ethiopian Israeli sector, facilitating the employment integration of additional Ethiopian Israelis, and bringing an end to the cycle of unemployment and poverty.

After completing the program, many participants continue on in one or more of the organization's supplementary frameworks. These include a Graduates' Forum and Graduates' Volunteer Program and an Executives' Course.

This program has been operating successfully since 2007 and has undergone changes and additions in order to increase its effectiveness. Since its inception, over 300 participants have been successfully placed in suitable employment positions, and some have even been promoted.