Peres helps Arab academics find high-tech jobs
New website, the result of joint initiative by president and Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, assists Arab university graduates to get hired by major Israeli companies
A special website targeting Arab academics was launched Wednesday as part of a new initiative put forward by President Shimon Peres and major Israeli high-tech company directors.
Peres and John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, came up with the idea during a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year. They enlisted the help of 20 Israeli high-tech executives including the CEOs of Intel, Microsoft, Amdocs, Check Point and more.
According to data collected by the Kav Mashve foundation which helps Arab university graduates find work, only 3%-4% of all Arab academics are employed by Israeli high-tech firms.
This partly stems from the Arab applicants' reluctance to appraoch Israeli work places, their fear of a negative response, and the Israeli industry's lack of acquaintance with and openness towards the Arab worker. These aspects pose as obstacles for Arab men and women to land work with Israeli firms.
Arab students can now send CVs to the hi-tech companies which joined the project via the www.maantech.org website.
"The companies' human resources departments have been unitied in the website and will serve as a 'work bank' for the purpose of incorporating Arab-Israelis in the hi-tech market," said Peres' financial advisor, Uri Ben-Porat.
Help writing resumes
According to Ben-Porat, one of the website's special features is the personal service provided by a special Manpower and Kav Mashve team. The team will check each application's relevance to the job database and will help the applicants adjust themselves to the requirements. Applicants will also receive help in writing their CVs in English.
"If an applicant doesn’t make it to the interview stage we'll check what is missing. No company will hire an inappropriate applicant or lower its standards. The project will simply help Arab applicants who are right for the companies to get hired," Ben-Porat said.
Zika Abzuk, social responsibility director at Cisco, said: "This project is very important as we know that the incorporation of Israeli Arabs in the local hi-tech industry will enrich human capital and boost the Israeli society's fortitude. Our goal is to achieve a situation where the rate of Arabs working in the high-tech industry will reflect their rate in the population. "
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