{"id":16472,"date":"2019-08-22T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/shopify-launches-re-training-program-for-developers-who-took-extended-leaves-of-absence-134570"},"modified":"2019-08-22T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T13:00:50","slug":"shopify-launches-re-training-program-for-developers-who-took-extended-leaves-of-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/08\/22\/shopify-launches-re-training-program-for-developers-who-took-extended-leaves-of-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Shopify launches re-training program for developers who took extended leaves of absence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Copyright: <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Kelsey Rolfe<\/span> | August 22, 2019 <\/p>\n

Shopify Inc. is putting out the welcome mat for software developers who\u2019ve taken leave from work with its new training program.<\/p>\n

The three-month paid program will help senior developers re-join the workforce after leaves of absence by bringing them up to speed on any technical developments in their field and training them on the Shopify technology stack, a collection of developer tools the company uses.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019ve] always been focused on engaging with the best talent, and in many cases what you have is people who have been in the workforce, take a leave of absence and find it hard to re-integrate,\u201d says Farhan Thawar, Shopify\u2019s vice-president of engineering. \u201cSo we\u2019re missing all these great folks who have a great background, who have the necessary experience, but have been out of the workforce for a while. We want to make sure we can engage with the full community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Canadian employers prioritizing investments in employee skills, well-being: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thawar, a father of three, says the idea for the program came from several colleagues\u2019 experiences of returning to work after leave. \u201cI\u2019ve taken off various amounts of time for each kid \u2014 and watching my wife, who\u2019s taken much more time off \u2014 and having a technical background, it\u2019s hard to re-integrate into the workforce,\u201d he says. \u201cThis type of program . . . can help people feel like there\u2019s a way to leverage the fundamentals they already have and then jump ahead with the latest technology stack.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the company hopes the program will lead to greater diversity in its workforce and the technology sector more broadly. \u201cIf there\u2019s a fit between the candidate and us, we\u2019d love for them to come to Shopify,\u201d he says. \u201cIf there\u2019s not a fit, I think it\u2019s valuable for both sides either way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Amazon, seeking more skilled workers, will offer free training<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Industries like the tech sector experience an \u201cextreme\u201d rate of change, making re-entry programs for people who\u2019ve taken extended leaves from work particularly valuable, says Nora Spinks, chief executive officer of the Vanier Institute of the Family.<\/p>\n

Referring specifically to Shopify\u2019s program, Spinks commends the \u201ceffort the employer is making to recognize life outside of work, to recognize diverse career paths and to reach out to a talent pool that in the past . . . may have been forgotten or left out.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says during tight labour markets, employers should get creative in how they attract talent, including connecting with people who\u2019ve temporarily left the workforce. \u201cThese types of adaptations and innovative ways of investing in your future workforce will become more the norm, and those human resources professionals that are more creative will be the ones that will capture the attention of the shrinking labour pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: How to bridge the parental leave divide<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelsey Rolfe | August 22, 2019 Shopify Inc. is putting out the welcome mat for software developers who\u2019ve taken leave from work with its new training program. The three-month paid program will help senior developers re-join...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}