JERUSALEM, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) and the state's Economy Ministry on Tuesday announced the selection of 12 training programs to prepare Arab Israelis for the hi-tech sector.
The programs, specially developed by Israeli companies and organizations, include training in the fields of programming, robotics, automation, analytics, web development, cloud, infrastructure engineering, recruitment, sales, and more, the IIA and ministry said in a statement.
The ministry's Directorate General of Labor and the Israel Innovation Authority will support the programs at a total cost of 12 million shekels (3.41 million U.S. dollars).
The programs are designed to train more than 2,200 Arab citizens over the next two years to deal with the shortage of hi-tech workers in the country and raise the low representation rate of Arab Israelis in the industry.
The programs will train the participants for advanced development roles, with an emphasis on theoretical and practical on-the-job training, combined with soft non-technical skills.
Arab Israelis comprise 21.1 percent of Israel's population, but the proportion of Arabs among all hi-tech employees ranges between 2 percent and 3 percent, according to the IIA. Only about 2 percent of Arab men and one percent of Arab women in Israel are employed in the hi-tech sector. ■
