Silatech has joined forces with www.Nabbesh.com, the Middle East’s only virtual skills marketplace, to connect talented individuals in Palestine with flexible and virtual work opportunities across the region, in a first of its kind campaign to address the region’s growing unemployment challenge.

Launching today, Fursati, meaning “my opportunity,” is a pilot program by Silatech and Nabbesh to create virtual jobs for youth in Palestine. Fursati aims to encourage businesses based mainly in the Gulf region to leverage the education and expertise of expert Palestinian talent to get work done remotely. To the Palestinians, Fursati will become a means for them to access quality jobs and earn a guaranteed income and reviews via Nabbesh.com.

Palestinian youth are highly educated, motivated, and eager to work. Yet their job prospects are severely limited, with youth unemployment reaching close to 50%. Remote work is one of the few available options, particularly in the areas of jobs that are in high demand on Nabbesh such as design, writing and translation, web development, admin and data entry. This program is designed to help qualified freelancers apply for and land jobs in companies internationally.

Both Silatech and Nabbesh.com have a commitment to empowering youth employment across the Arab World.  Nabbesh.com is the Middle East’s only virtual skills marketplace and was founded in 2012 as a solution for the region’s growing unemployment challenges; it connects talented individuals with flexible and virtual work opportunities. Since its inception Nabbesh.com has connected over 5000 startups, small and medium companies, as well as multinational organizations, with a community of over 65,000 freelancers from the Middle East and North Africa region. Silatech is a non-profit regional social initiative with a mission to connect young people throughout the Arab world with employment and enterprise opportunities. Working with over 100 partners in 15 countries, Silatech programs have created or sustained over 140,000 jobs since 2009.

The goal of Fursati is to create jobs and career development opportunities for Palestinian youth, while providing talented freelancers to meet the needs of employers. There are a number of benefits for freelancers participating in the program:

• Opportunity to gain experience working for companies internationally.
• Earn ratings on Nabbesh.com that will help get more jobs in the future.
• Make money working remotely
• All wire transfer fees are covered by the project

In addition to providing employers in the region with the opportunity to hire qualified remote workers at an affordable rate through www.Nabbesh.com, Fursati is providing additional incentives to employers:

• All Nabbesh and wire transfer fees for employers are covered by the project, saving employers money
• All employers who create 5 or more jobs will be featured along other socially responsible employers on the project channels

To post a relevant job as part of the Fursati campaign, employers can visit www.nabbesh.com and enter the promo code Fursati.

For project news and updates, www.blog.nabbesh/fursati will be the online touchpoint for helpful articles and more.

Nabbesh and Silatech are currently facilitating workshops in Palestine, as well as online videos and webinars, to help teach freelancers how to apply, create a good resume and cover letter, and produce work which meets or surpasses the professional standards needed by employers.

Loulou Khazen Baz, Founder of www.Nabbesh.com says

“2/3 of the population in the Arab world is under the age of 30. They have grown up on the Internet and smartphones. We believe that empowering them to find employment online is a natural extension of what they are already doing. It also represents the future of the global economy. Fursati will encourage both awareness of remote or virtual work as a viable option to employers whilst providing employment options for young people and securing their payment in an area of the region where opportunities are lowest, but talent is high.”

Dr. Rachel Awad, Associate Director of Employability at Silatech, says:

“Relevant experience can be difficult to gain when competing with workers from across the Middle East. The relatively small geographical area of Palestine allows Fursati to do workshops on the ground where we can train freelancers on how to apply, create a strong virtual work portfolio, and conduct work to the professional standards needed by employers.”

“Training and workshops help prequalify them to apply for jobs posted on Nabbesh that are eligible only for participants in this program. This means that they have a better chance at landing their first job, which in turn will increase their chance of future jobs and hopefully building a career.”