President Shimon Peres and 20 high-tech CEOs will hold a press conference at the Dan Tel Aviv Hotel on Wednesday, February 9, where they will announce the first project of its kind in Israel for employing Israeli Arabs in high tech. The project will include a website where Israeli-Arab students can send their CVs to high-tech companies - www.maantech.org.il
Israeli-Arab students will be able to undergo an enrichment program to help them write a CV and obtain other skills. The website will include human resources departments of participating companies, which will create a listing of available high-tech jobs for Israeli Arabs. Manpower Israel Ltd. and NPO Kav Mashve Employers' Coalition for Equality for Arab University Graduates will manage the sorting process.
Participants at the event will include Intel Israel general manager Maxine Fassberg, SanDisk Israel general manager Dan Inbar, Cisco Israel country manager Boaz Maoz, Microsoft Israel R&D center president Moshe Lichtman, TowerJazz (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) CEO Russell Elwanger, HP Israel country manager Yehoshua Bubola, SAP Labs Israel managing director Mickey Steiner, IBM Israel general manager Meir Nissensohn, LivePerson Technology Operations - Israel EVP and general manager Eli Campo, TaKaDu CEO Amir Peleg, NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) president and CEO Zeev Bregman, CA Israel country manager Shai Onn, ECI Telecom Ltd. CEO Rafi Maor, RSA Security Israel general manager Michal Blumenstyk-Braverman, and Internet guru Yossi Vardi.
Figures indicate that only a small percentage of Israeli-Arab university graduates with the relevant degrees (computer sciences, mathematics, physics, software and hardware engineering, and materials engineers) are hired by Israeli high-tech companies. Kav Mashve says that only 3-4% of Israeli-Arab university graduates are employed by Israeli high-tech companies.
Reasons for these figures include reticence by Israeli-Arab university graduates from applying for jobs, candidates fear of rejection, and a lack of knowledge and openness by Israeli companies about young Israeli-Arabs. These problems make it difficult for young Israeli-Arab men and women from getting jobs at the companies.
Peres initiated the event with Cisco Systems president and CEO John Chambers during a meeting at last year's World Economic Forum in Davos.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 8, 2011
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