Minister of Finance Israel Katz and Minister of Welfare Itzik Shmuli will meet this week to try and settle the dispute between them, which is delaying implementation of a professional training program. The meeting is expected to pave the way for the release of billions of shekels to fund the program. In a compromise plan different tracks in the retraining program will be under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Welfare, and the Ministry of Economy and Industry.
The cabinet decided at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to retrain 100,000 people in professions with job vacancies as part of the efforts to assist the economy during the crisis. NIS 1 billion was allocated for the program in 2020 and 2021 and an inter-ministerial team of director generals was set up under Prime Minister's Office director general Ronen Peretz to form the plans.
The inter-ministerial team was charged with the task of finding solutions to dramatically expand the government's professional training efforts. At present, only 14,000 people undergo government sponsored professional training each year. The inter-ministerial team recommended adding courses in high productivity sectors in high-tech, industry, energy sand construction, which would allow 120,000 people to be trained by the end of 2021.
Dispute over the budgets
However, the inter-ministerial team was unable to agree which ministry would be most suited to implementing the training programs after a dispute broke out between Katz and Shmuli. The bone of contention revolved around the setting up of an administration as part of the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, which Shmuli argued had the appropriate professional knowhow to handle the training. Katz thought that it would be better to set up an administration within the Ministry of Finance because the Ministry of Labor and Welfare only has limited experience in professional training. He proposed that the training programs be divided up between the three government ministries according to the type of training.
The Ministry of Economy and Industry would be responsible for high-tech through the Israel Innovation Authority, the Ministry of Finance will be responsible for training programs in high-productivity industries and the Ministry of Welfare will handle the other training programs.
But the Ministry of Welfare rejected the plan and proclaimed that professional training was its exclusive domain. Due to the dispute NIS 275 million already allocated for the training programs has yet to be used. The balance of NIS 925 million is available for use over the next 14 months.
However, the Ministry of Welfare has softened its stance on the matter and Shmuli and Katz are expected to reach agreement in the next few days.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 3, 2020
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