Global Talent Idaho is a new workforce development initiative to enable skilled refugees and other immigrants to successfully integrate into professional roles in Idaho and to help Idaho retain these talented professional as key contributors to our state's community and economy. Every year, hundreds of refugees and other immigrants leave everything behind in their countries, arriving in Idaho with
advanced degrees, English language skills and successful but interrupted careers - as engineers, doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants and scientists. They end up significantly underemployed in low-wage jobs, their skills and talents left untapped. Global Talent Idaho aims to change that, helping skilled immigrants find roles related to their former careers, experience and education. Global Talent Idaho provides job seekers with career counseling, training, cultural orientation, and opportunities for mentoring, networking and internships that provide direct connections with employers. This also benefits employers by providing a resource for high-skilled workers who bring their often unparalleled commitment, global perspective and multiple languages to the workplace. Global Talent Idaho is a missing link for underserved refugee and immigrant communities, and for Idaho's economic growth. By enabling high-skilled immigrants to reclaim careers, Global Talent Idaho restores hope and dignity to people whose lives and careers have been interrupted, increases wages and family income, and boosts tax revenues for Idaho communities. Global Talent Idaho is positioned to create a more diverse, vibrant and talented workforce in Idaho.
