New Zealand seeks tech talents and fly them over for free

LookSee Wellington is a government programme in New Zealand seeking to bring tech talents into the country.

New Zealand is seeking to recruit new talents in the technology landscape to work in the country with perquisites they will certainly enjoy, including a free plane ticket.

In a bid to make New Zealand a new technology centre, the nation's government is looking for experts in the field to join the specialised workforce it needs to bring its vision to life. Wellington, the country's capital, will be accommodating 100 tech workers for a four day-long visit to the city, all free of charge.

Under the LookSee programme, Wellington will pre-arrange job interviews with firms within the area for qualified individuals. LookSee Wellington is a program under Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA) and Workhere New Zealand with the support of Immigration New Zealand and NZTech.

Some job types available include architects, developers, engineers, analysts, and specialists. Check out the specific job positions available here.

As of May, the programme has received over 48,000 applications around the world. Around the same time, 63 out of 93 people who were flown into the city accepted the job offers. So far, the programme has already brought 29 people from the US, 9 from Canada, 8 from the UK, 7 from India, and 1 from Australia.

The WREDA spent a total of US$224,000 for LookSee Wellington's campaign. The marketing plan is expensive but it believes the investment would strengthen the region's economy, the agency said in a statement. Wellington currently has 203,800 people within the city's political jurisdiction.

The real challenge here, according to WREDA, is how many people will stay in the long run. Still, it remains optimistic how this campaign would turn out down the road.

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