SAP Development Center has marked the end of the first training program in collaboration with KamaTech, which included 25 Haredi women who successfully completed the course. Behind the collaboration is the Development Center of SAP, one of the world’s leading technology companies, and the KamaTech social venture, which was founded by entrepreneurs from the Haredi community, with the aim of integrating Haredim into Israel’s high-tech industry.
The KamaTech training program has been taking place in Israel since 2018 and has so far brought about a major change in everything related to finding jobs for Haredi women in the high-tech industry. Until the program was set up, Haredi women for the most part, were integrated into auxiliary professions on the fringes of high-tech industry and did not succeed in reaching the forefront of the industry at the big companies. There were a only few Haredi women who did manage to reach the forefront of the industry, and they had to go along a very difficult path in order to get there. The program, led by KamaTech, creates an equal opportunity for all to learn and enter the industry. The program deepens computer science studies in seminaries and adds another layer of practical specialization for international tech companies with advanced technologies.
As of today, nearly 1,200 Haredi women students complete software engineering program in seminaries each year throughout Israel and these numbers are growing from year to year, with the assistance of the KamaTech program, which gives talented women practical specializations in international tech companies and subsequently allows them to integrate as employees at these companies.
SAP Development Center VP Development Eliel Schurman said, "At SAP we already have today Haredi and religious women working in key positions, and that is not the main reason, because they are measured purely by their professionalism. The significant training that the women have undergone in the KamaTech program and with our mentors allows us to identify potential and reach talented women that perhaps we wouldn’t have found in another way. From my point of view, the work with KamaTech proves that the high-tech industry is not only the moving force of the Israeli market but also represents a unifying factor that creates connections between the different population segments under the umbrella of technological excellence."
KamaTech founder Moshe Friedman added, "We are delighted about the collaboration with SAP, which advocates technological excellence as well as promoting a range of populations. It is gratifying to see the desire of the company's management to create beneficial collaborations with the Haredi public, and to support the integration of Haredi women in the high-tech industry. Giving this opportunity to Haredi women in high-tech industry is leveraging potential and is a net profit for all involved. There is a welcome initiative here that is motivated by the good will of all parties to reach as many women as possible with enormous potential and guide them in the best way so that they can realize their talent." KamaTech VP Sari Roth said, "Seeing the products of the projects that the women have been working on for the past three months proves to us once again how much benefit the KamaTech initiative brings with it. In this case, 25 women, who thanks to a precise framework and most of all thanks to their skills, will be able to integrate into the forefront of the technology of the local high-tech industry. It is a privilege for us to know that there is endeavor and pay-back for both sides. The women also learn and receive tools to build their career on the one hand, while also the SAP mentors who put their entire hearts into the program, and gave their professional experience, got to know the women well and may also work alongside them in the future."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 14, 2023.
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