Pilot program hopes to instill “technological, cognitive and digital proficiency” in schools and boost opportunities for under-represented segments of Israeli society.
By TPS
The Cabinet approved on Sunday during its weekly meeting a plan to “increase and develop human capital” in the Israeli high-tech industry, with emphasis on populations that are not currently represented in the industry.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid said the state is “committed to dramatically strengthening the Israeli hi-tech market. Hi-tech education from a young age, as well as expanding representation and roles, are essential steps. This is right morally and it is right economically.”
“Israel has the characteristics and the potential to be one of the 10 most successful countries in the world; this plan is a good start,” he said.
The plan includes high-tech education “for instilling technological, cognitive and digital proficiency that is necessary for integration into the 21st-century labor market.”
The pilot plan will start this year in approximately 600 8th-grade classrooms in around 120 schools and approximately 1,500 kindergartens. Next year, the service will expand to additional 8th and 9th-grade classrooms while prioritizing the periphery until the plan spreads to all schools.
As for under-represented populations, the government has adopted the Innovation Minister’s goals of adding 4,500 personnel from the Arab sector, and 2,500 from the ultra-Orthodox sector, with at least 45 percent of Innovation Authority trainees being women.
The Israel-Tech Plan will locate and bring to Israel people with relevant education for high-tech work in Israel who are eligible under the Law of Return. The plan will “tangibly strengthen the Israeli high-tech industry, boost links with world Jewry and serve as positive diplomacy for the State of Israel.” The goal is to integrate at least 1,500 workers in 2022-2026.
The plan further calls for increasing the number of foreign experts by 2,000 coming to Israel to work for high-tech companies in 2022-2026. To assist in meeting this goal, the Innovation Authority will operate high-tech support centers that will help high-tech companies in removing bureaucratic impediments to bringing in high-tech workers from abroad.
The plan is also pushing for a 20% increase in the number of university students studying high-tech professions and a 30% increase in the number of pre-university preparatory program students studying high-tech professions.
This program appears to be a recycling of a similar program presented a year ago.