Israel working to integrate more Ethiopians in high-tech work

Tel Aviv [Israel]: Israel’s Ministry of Labor and its Innovation Authority announced plans to finance programmes for the training and placement of Ethiopians in the country’s high-tech industry.

Israel is known as a centre of high-tech entrepreneurship, so much so that the country has been dubbed “Startup Nation.”

As part of a government plan, three programmes were selected for Israelis of Ethiopian origin, which will train over 500 men and women over the next two years across the country and provide a response to the manpower challenges in the high-tech field and the underrepresentation of Ethiopian origin in the industry.

The winners are: 8200 Alumni Association, Tech-Career and a program in collaboration with Reichman University.

The data in the field of high-tech employment show that despite the positive trends that have taken place in recent years and in view of the current situation, the rate of employment in high-tech among Ethiopians is still low – and only 4.6 per cent of Ethiopian men and 2.3 per cent of women are employed in high-tech, compared to rates of about 12 per cent and 7.5 per cent in high-tech among non-Orthodox Jewish men and non-Orthodox Jewish women, respectively.

This, said the ministry, is part of the government’s employment goals in the field of integrating Ethiopians into quality employment as well as its goals in the field of responding to the shortage of skilled manpower in the high-tech industry.

Israel Ozan, Director General of the Ministry of Labor: “Our future depends to a large extent on the ability of people from different sectors to find themselves in positions with high wages and productivity”