OECD: Israel ranks 28th out of 34 countries in skills testing - needs vocational training

Israel suffers from a large number of workers with low work skills and a very weak professional training system. These two data contribute greatly to the relatively low productivity data of the Israeli worker. In an OECD skills testing survey, Israel ranks 28th out of 34 countries. Moreover, in computer skills Israel is ranked 24th out of 29. Israel's investment in vocational training for adults is among the lowest among OECD countries and stands at less than 0.4% of public spending on education, placing it among the last five places out of 19 countries surveyed. Israel also came in third place from the bottom among the developed countries in the effectiveness of vocational training. The intention of the government will be to spend half a billion shekels on the vocational training program. But it is not clear for how long, and we have already seen that the Treasury is much more generous with plans than with money.
In Israel today there are 850,000 unemployed and working on unpaid leave due to the corona crisis, most of them from the weaker sections. They ostensibly constitute a golden opportunity for a national operation of improving manpower and raising productivity and wages. However, a discussion held yesterday in the Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee shows that the first four months of the crisis were wasted. As things progress now there is a grave concern that this will also happen in the coming months.
The director of the vocational training division at the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, Dr. Rinat Cohen, presented the committee with a picture according to which in terms of vocational training, Israel entered this crisis in the worst possible situation. In 2019, the division had NIS 30 million "But since no budget was approved for 2020, only NIS 4 million was approved for the actual division in which he organized 30 courses. This was the answer given to mass unemployment. Just recently, another 8 million were transferred to vouchers, ie 12 million out of 66 in total." What the wing has, "Cohen said," is no budget. It's a drop in the ocean. "
 It is agreed by the professionals that the most effective training courses are those done in collaboration with the employers. This is because the training is done according to the needs of the employers and there is also their commitment to absorb the graduates. According to Cohen, there are dozens of inquiries from employers. However, in June 2019, the collaboration project was suspended due to budgetary reasons, and has not been renewed since. That is, the field of vocational training, which was also particularly weak, has undergone extreme drying in the past year and especially in the days of the Corona.