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From Cleaning Lady to Silicon-Chip Factory Worker: An Employment Initiative Success Story
When Bizu, 47, reflects on her experience of aliyah from Ethiopia in 1991, the feelings are bittersweet. "Though it was a dream to arrive, it was very difficult to become familiar and adjust to this new world," she says. Bizu’s absorption experience was not easy, and was further aggravated by the fact that she was a divorced mother of three. This meant that as well as having to learn a new language and adapt to cultural differences, she was under pressure to find work in order to support her family.
Lacking vocational skills, Bizu was forced to take low-paying cleaning work. In between the cleaning jobs and taking care of her children, she had little time to spend on advancing her career prospects. Determined to improve her Hebrew language skills, Bizu attended evening classes at her local community center. However, as she could not afford to stop work in order to train in a vocation, she still could not find long-term employment with a decent salary. Immigrants to Israel, particularly from Ethiopia and the Caucasus Mountain Region, are one of five populations targeted by the Employment Initiative — a partnership between JDC and the Government of Israel which seeks to break the cycle of poverty that exists for nearly 750,000 "chronically unemployed" individuals by helping to address the cultural, social and other barriers that they face to employment. Through the Initiative, custom-tailored programs are designed to provide those populations shown to have the greatest need for supported assistance in entering the workforce — immigrants, people with disabilities, Haredim, Arab-Israelis, and young adults — with both the soft and hard skills required to help them find and keep decent jobs. Thanks to the Employment Initiative’s cooperation with organizations such as the Ministry of Absorption’s employment bureau, Bizu was identified as an ideal candidate for Reshet— a program designed to give immigrant Israelis the tools to find and maintain decent jobs. Today, thanks to the training and mentoring provided by this three-stage employment program, Bizu works as a skilled factory worker specializing in electronic circuitry. The program’s subsidized training allowed Bizu to advance her vocational skills while also supporting her family. She was able to enter a preparatory course in manufacturing and electronics, and also took further courses in advanced Hebrew, mathematics, English, computer studies and electronic circuitry. Complementary to her studies, the program’s simulated work conditions introduced Bizu to the basic concepts of the workplace. When program staff felt she was ready to put her new skills into practice, they accompanied her to a local silicon-chip processing factory to work with the assembly team. Ongoing support from staff helped Bizu adjust quickly into her new environment, and with both the factory and Bizu satisfied with her performance, she was taken on as a permanent employee. "After all this time, I finally feel that I belong here…that I can give something…that this is my home," says Bizu. Without the program’s subsidized vocational training and mentoring, Bizu and her children would have had little hope of escaping the poverty caused by her having to take an endless stream of low-paying, low-status jobs, which would have kept her and her family on the fringes of Israeli society. Reshet was able to address Bizu’s needs by maximizing her existing strengths and helping her to develop key vocational skills in order to find a gainful career path. By supporting her through her initial period in a workplace and acting as a bridge to her employers, the Reshet staff was able to avoid the high attrition rate common to many first time immigrant-employees. Today Bizu can support her family, but 60% of Ethiopian-Israeli families still do not have a breadwinner. By the end of 2006 Reshet will have reached 600 Ethiopian-Israelis in eight locations. Ultimately, JDC seeks to make the program’s services available nationwide, so that a smooth integration into employment and economic self-sufficiency can be ensured for many others like Bizu. April 2006 |
