From the Desk of Takele Mekonen, 

Dear Friends and Partners, 

 

Now that the COVID-19 crisis is behind us, we would like to thank you all once again for your ongoing support, which enabled us to emerge from this period stronger than ever. We are experiencing growth in every field – in the number of courses, students, employers and even placement rates. Moreover, for the first time in the history of Tech-Career, we are inaugurating two new branches – in the Haifa area and in Be'er Sheva.  

Among our new training programs in the coming year is a Data Analysis course for academics, in collaboration with the Israel Innovation Authority and Meta (Facebook). For the first time this past year, we launched an Automation Development course for new Ethiopian Israeli immigrants living at absorption centers in Be'er Sheva, who attained academic degrees in Ethiopia, in partnership with the Jewish Agency – for them this program is a springboard both into Israel's high tech industry and society. We are also continuing to run a wide variety of training programs, including courses specifically for women, many of whom are single mothers, to enable them to break the cycle of poverty sustainably. 

We are continuing to expand our government partnerships, and over the past year won two significant tenders. The first is with the Ministry of Labor to run the In Tech Program that will familiarize Ethiopian Israeli young people with high tech professions and support them through training and placement processes across the country. This is an intensive three-year tender program and our aim is to bring about the enrolment of 1,000 young people in high tech training programs at universities, technological colleges, boot camps and professional technological training programs. The second is a three-year technological training program for discharged soldiers, in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense. This program will take place in Ramle, Lod, and in the Haifa area and in its framework we plan to open the new Tech-Career branch just north of Haifa at the beginning of 2023. 

Global events (such the war in Ukraine and the inflation crisis) and other factors have led to a recent slowdown in Israel's high tech industry, which is evident in recruitment processes of junior employees. In order to cope with this challenge, we have increased our placement efforts by establishing a placement team headed by Tech-Career's Board Chair Hezi Kalo and includes Board members and our career preparation and placement staff. The team is assessing the effectiveness of our training programs and together with industry professionals is seeking out a greater number of relevant positions in order to ensure placement of our graduates. In addition, the team is working on producing a job expo, in collaboration with leading VC and high tech companies to place the spotlight on the Ethiopian Israeli community's human capital. Despite the slowdown, experts estimate that Israel's high tech industry will require about 30,000 new employees in the coming year, and we are working to ensure that many of these positions will be filled by our graduates. 

 

Thank you again for your significant partnership and support. 

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful, and Prosperous Year. 

 

Shana Tova,  

 

Takele Mekonen 

CEO