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As you (should) know, we requested suggestions for causes that had to do with bridging the digital divide. This is void of religion and politics and since the common bond we have is technology, we thought something which works to ensure that those of us who are at the cutting edge of technology are not leaving behind others would be nice.

The cause we decided upon is Tech-Career, which in and of itself is a compelling story. Started by an Ethiopian Israeli with the goal of helping others of that community succeed in Israel, Tech-Career trains members of the Ethiopian Israeli community in high-tech careers. They have been extremely successful in job placement now with alumni who are not only in management positions in leading firms, but who have contributed financially back to the organization including one of its board members.

The organization is now encouraging its alumni to work together as they see fit to help the Ethiopian community in Israel.

Currently there is no need for equipment. However, because students live on the premises their expense goes beyond education and includes living expenses. The cost for each student is about $10k/year. Our goal is one month for one student $833.

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.

• Software Development Program - Dot.Net – Intensive 11 month residential course. Curriculum emphasizes the latest MS programming technologies. Program carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor. Graduates receive Tech-Career, John Bryce (the largest technological training center in Israel) and Microsoft certificates.
• Software Development Program – COBOL – Intensive 9 month residential course. Curriculum teaches COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) software development. Program carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor and IBM. Graduates receive Tech-Career and John Bryce (the largest technological training center in Israel) certificates.
• Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Program – Intensive 6 month residential course. The curriculum focuses on the newest methodologies of software testing. Program carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor and John Bryce. Graduates receive an international software testing engineering certificate (ISTQB) and Tech-Career certification.
• External Placement Program – Tech-Career is considered to be the technology training center for the Ethiopian Israeli community. As such, graduates of other technological programs approach us for our job placement services and we take great pride in being able to assist them.
• Mechina - Tech-Career’s Mechina Program prepares students for computer science tracks in universities and colleges.
• Tech-Career Graduates Forum –Tech-Career is now establishing an active alumni association whose goal is to increase social awareness and community activism. Activities will be decided upon by forum members.
• Ethiopian Professional Social Action Forum - Tech-Career is working together with other organizations in order to create a forum of young Ethiopian Israeli professionals. Forum members will come from a variety of fields – social work, law and high-tech to name a few and will be instrumental in leading the Ethiopian Israeli community in the future.

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.

We had 61 Twestival attendees in February. Our goal for this Twestival is 75-100. Purchase your tickets here.

The cause was submitted and approved by Causecast, the official not-for-profit vetting partner for Twestival Local.

See http://www.tech-career.org