High-tech forum: to train 2,500 ultra-Orthodox women in computer science each year

The Haredi Institute for Policy Studies, together with some of the leading high-tech companies in Israel and prominent figures in industry and the ultra-Orthodox sector, announced the establishment of a high-tech forum aimed at integrating the ultra-Orthodox into the industry. The goal of the forum is to train 2,500 Haredi women in computer science seminars each year and integrate them into the labor market. This is in order to improve the employment status of women from the ultra-Orthodox sector, and to meet the shortage of 15,000 engineers in the high-tech industry.
Among the members of the forum is Michael Eisenberg, managing partner of venture capital fund Alef; Entrepreneur and investor Dov Moran; Prof. Shlomo Kalish, CEO and founder of Jerusalem Global Ventures, Start-Up Central Central (SNC), Eyal Waldman, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of Mellanox, Dr. Shlomo Merkel, Vice president of Broadcom International; And Kerem Nevo, director of the Forum of Growth Companies and Vice President of Government Relations at the WIX.
At the first meeting of the Forum, it was decided that the first step to be taken was to reform the curriculum of the computer science courses of the ultra-Orthodox seminaries. The seminar is supervised by Mahat, a center for high-tech training in the Ministry of Labor, but there is a great deal of difference between the seminars and the level of study in them is not uniform, and the women find it difficult to integrate into industry due to the irrelevance of the curriculum to the high-tech industry.
For this purpose, high-tech teams at the Institute together with industry entities will cooperate in mapping and defining the needs in the industry and will determine the nature of the syllabus of studies that will be promoted within the framework of the reform. The program is based on a pilot conducted by SNC, a member of the forum, in the framework of which Haredi women were trained in high-tech work in the programming professions. The Forum is currently working with the Ministry of Labor, high-tech industry officials, and the seminars themselves, in order to create a comprehensive reform in the curricula offered to haredi women.
Today, only 3% of high-tech employees are ultra-Orthodox, even though they comprise about 9% of the population in Israel. There are about 9,100 employees, of whom about 5,200 are women. 44% of haredi women in high-tech earn NIS 10,000 a month or more, and 25% of them earn between NIS 8,000 and NIS 10,000 a month - a particularly high salary relative to the average wage in the ultra-Orthodox sector. These figures were recently presented to the Knesset Science and Technology Committee by Nitza (Kliner) Kasir, deputy chairman of the Haredi Institute for Policy Studies.
Since haredi women are the main breadwinners in the household, 90% of haredi women continue their studies in vocational seminars after high school, and their employment rate is 75%, higher than that of haredi men employed at only 50%.
Some 8,000 haredi women attend vocational seminars each year, and according to Ministry of Labor figures, the number is expected to double to 16,000 within a few years. Most of the women go to professions in the fields of education and welfare, but about 800-700 of them study in vocational training programs.
"The demand for high-tech workers is so great that we are not taking care of hiring high-tech jobs," said Eli Paley, chairman of the Haredi Institute for Policy Studies. , Tests we call 'industry psychometric tests', any training program you want to get approved by the industry will have to pass these tests to its students not only at the end of the program but also during it. This is intended to become a type of standard - those who pass the tests will be given the opportunity to integrate into the industry.

Haredi women's wages in high-tech are 25% lower than the average. This was revealed in the Science and Technology Committee. Committee Chairman Uri Maklev said that despite the government's training programs for ultra-Orthodox women in cyberspace, the public sector requires experience and is not satisfied with training: "If only they give the opportunity and fair wages, they will discover this treasure"

And the Science and Technology Committee, which discussed the discrimination against Haredi women employed in the high-tech industry. According to the committee's chairman, Uri Maklev of UTJ said that whether it is structured discrimination or conflicting data, there is a shortage of high-tech workers, and it is necessary to exploit the close employees and their abilities - and not to import programmers dance. "There is obviously no difference in the matter between the private and public sectors, and there is no discrimination in the latter, but there is still a problem in creating jobs and adapting them to ultra-Orthodox," he said.
Maklev warned that despite the government's training programs for ultra-Orthodox women, after training, the public sector requires experience and does not make do with training. Sometimes, provisions prohibiting the early start of work, which allow for early departure, prevent mothers from being accepted and advancing in the public sector.
According to Ilan Gilon, the Meretz party said, "In the private sector, there is a capitalist exploitation of the ultra-Orthodox, which is the weakest proletariat to protect, and ultra-Orthodox women earn about NIS 5,500 today, whose non-Haredi counterpart receives almost double the value of fairness."
According to Yoav Ben-Tzur of the Shas party, his two daughters are programmers, and from them he has heard of masses of haredi women who are desperate for work, far away, under conditions of slavery, at a meager wage, with the employers' scorn. "Aliza Lavie of the Future Party warned against the lack of state scholarships for these women
According to Nitza Kleiner-Kassir, deputy head of the Haredi Institute for Policy Studies and a former researcher at the Bank of Israel, the overall employment of haredi women in Israel is about 75 percent higher than the rest of the OECD countries.
One out of every four ultra-Orthodox women is integrated into academia, albeit less than the rest of the population but in a rising trend. About 800-700 ultra-Orthodox women study each year in professional programming training, as well as several hundred seminars. About 5% of ultra-Orthodox women are employed in high-tech, but these figures are rising. 44% of haredi women in high-tech earn more than 10,000 NIS, but the average wage of haredi women in this field is 25% lower than the average. According to her, they find it difficult to bargain over their salaries due to their lack of knowledge of who can and should be contacted, and out of fear of losing their jobs.
According to Dr. Gilad Malach, head of the ultra-Orthodox program at the Israel Democracy Institute, about 10 percent of ultra-Orthodox women are currently studying computer science - a figure similar to that of Israeli society, and therefore the wage problem will worsen within a few years. "The potential of ultra-Orthodox women has not yet been realized," he said. "If they give the opportunity and fair wages, they will discover this treasure."
Itzik Krumbi, the director of BizMax and the KMAH Foundation, a Haredi professional advancement, presented detailed data on the integration of ultra-Orthodox women into high-tech, which indicate wage gaps between ultra-Orthodox and non-Haredi women in industry. According to a survey conducted by the fund a few months ago, an overwhelming majority of ultra-Orthodox women in high-tech prefer to work in a full-time job so that they can return home early.
Ruti Sirota, of the Support organization, spoke of plans tailored to Haredi women to lead them to management positions. Evyatar Peretz, the director of contracts at the Accountant General's Office, spoke of many government programs that require training and not an academic degree, while Moshe Friedman, CEO of Camtek, , High-class, non-academic, and graduates of those training courses are recruited for work more than academically.