PIlots' graduation (archive)
Photo: Meir Azoulay
20% of pilots' course graduates born abroad
Soldiers graduating from pilots' court this week break new record with one-fifth of them born outside of Israel. Half of graduates were members in youth groups and live in cities
Record number of immigrants graduate from pilots' course. In the upcoming ceremony on Thursday, one of five soldiers receiving their wings was not born in Israel, according to figures published Sunday by the IDF ahead of the 160th pilots' course graduation.
This is the highest rate of immigrants by far out of any pilots' course. Typically, the number of graduates who were not born in Israel ranges between 6 and 7%. Of the new pilots who are not Israeli-born, some of them emigrated from the former Soviet Union, while others were born to Israeli parents who were abroad when they were born.
About a third of the graduates speak a foreign language as their mother tongue. Fifteen percent are mother-tongue English speakers, 12.5% are Russian speakers, 2.5% are French speakers, and 2.5% are Danish speakers.
Members of youth groups
The figures show that a lion's share of the course graduates is from a city (42%); one third lives in community townships; 12% are from a moshav; and 10% are from a kibbutz.
Youth groups have proven to be fertile ground for producing future pilots as half of the of the course graduates were members of one youth movement or another when they were younger.
Another outstanding statistic is that 12.5% of the graduates volunteered for a year of national service prior to enlisting the military.
The current stands out in regards to the professions of the pilots' parents, with 17% of their mothers working as teachers, and one quarter of their fathers working as engineers. The figures also show that 35% of the pilot graduates are first-born children in their families, while 35% are the youngest siblings in their families.
