For over 25 years, Ethiopian Israelis have been attempting to break out of the harsh socio-economic reality in which they live and integrate into Israeli society. According to the latest statistics (Brookdale Institute, 2007), more than 50% of Ethiopian Israeli families are still living below the poverty line, compared to 14.5% of veteran Israeli families. Tech-Career, founded in 2003 by a member of the Ethiopian Israeli community, provides an innovative solution and a unique opportunity for Ethiopian Israelis to climb the socio-economic ladder.

Tech-Career offers Ethiopian Israeli young adults professional technological training, personal development workshops and job placement services. Our combined training programs offer participants the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge, experience and skills to succeed in Israeli high tech industries, to develop their careers and to make the transition from economic and social dependence to independence. To date, all Tech-Career graduates are employed in Israeli high tech industries as software developers or software quality assurance professionals. Our aim is to ensure that by 2012 at least 1,000 Ethiopian Israelis will be working in Israeli high tech industries. We believe that our graduates and others like them will be the future leaders and social activists of the Ethiopian Israeli community.

At Tech-Career, we believe that the programs we are developing may serve as a model for work with other deprived communities. We are currently documenting our work in order to formulate such a model, and examining the feasibility of pilot projects to determine whether our model is viable for other communities.