Vocational Training: A Tool for Employment Integration of East Jerusalem Residents

Summary

During the past five years, the Israeli government, through the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), has operated institutions and programs aimed at improving the education system in East Jerusalem, promoting employment integration, and integrating women into the employment market. These efforts, however, have not yet resulted in a significant decline in poverty rates or an increase in levels of education.

In this study we have chosen to focus on vocational training as a tool for positive structural change that can reduce poverty and promote employment integration among East Jerusalem residents. Vocational training focuses on the acquisition of specific knowledge or skills for the sake of employment. Studies from various countries across the world have shown that vocational training is an effective tool for structural change and the career advancement and rapid training of workers in various sectors of the employment market.

Vocational training can offer a meaningful and practical solution, in the near term, for East Jerusalem workers who lack a secondary or post-secondary education (and who constitute the majority of employees in East Jerusalem today), while also enabling individuals with academic training to improve their chances of entering the employment market. As the study will show, private and public vocational training is available in East Jerusalem, but the existing infrastructure lacks a systemic vision as well as oversight and regulation, and is inadequate to meet the demands of the employment market.