The new national program that brings "high-tech studies" to the Israeli periphery is revealed for the first time. The mirror centers will be established already this year in 10 community centers across the country - including the Kiryat Yam community center.
The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the Society for Community Development started today to launch a new national program - 'Mirror Centers', the program that will give equal opportunity to young men and women from the periphery to connect to the worlds of high-tech and entrepreneurship.
A celebratory launch event was held this week at the Technological Innovation Center in Holon, in the presence of the Minister of Innovation, Orit Farkash HaCohen, the CEO of the Ministry of Innovation, Hila Hadad Hamelnik, the CEO of the Society for Community Development, Tal Basches, and the Mayor of Holon, Motti Sasson. The principles of the program were presented at the event In front of the directors of the ten community centers from around the country included in the program, the heads of the authorities, the educational staff that will operate the program and the headquarters of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.
take off
As part of the "Mirror Centers" program, high-tech entrepreneurship centers will be established in community centers throughout the country. The participants, teenage boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18, will receive tools for developing an entrepreneurial and creative mindset that enables innovation, and will be able to experience setting up a high-tech enterprise accompanied by mentors from the high-tech industry.
The project has already started in ten community centers across the country, in the following settlements: Kiryat Yam, Baka al-Gharbia, Yerka, Tamra, Rahat (the joint switch center for Jews and Bedouins) and other settlements. The intention is to expand it in about a year to additional community centers later in all cities in Israel.
"Minister of Innovation, Orit Farkash HaCohen:
"Today, another important program is being launched that will allow equal opportunity for every child in Israel. "Matans Tech - Centers for the Mirror" is an initiative that brings high tech to the youth in Israel - into their community at the neighborhood community center. Now, even in the periphery, we will be able to enjoy the "mirror centers", where every child can take off, and develop an entrepreneurial project of his choice with the guidance of high tech industry people. We want the youth in the periphery not to think that being an entrepreneur is a distant dream, and this program will give tools and confidence to make it happen. The program joins the "High Class" curriculum that the ministry launched this year as well, of learning hi-tech skills and programming as part of the curriculum that has already begun in 500 eighth graders and 500 compulsory kindergartens. "Tech and programming as part of the curriculum that has already begun in XNUMX eighth graders and XNUMX compulsory kindergartens .'
From idea to execution
As part of the activity program of the launch centers, the children and youth will experience an environment that simulates work in the high-tech industry, accompanied by mentors from the industry and the promotion of projects from the idea stage and entrepreneurship to the execution stage. Participants will acquire presentation skills, spoken English, preparing presentations, building a work plan and marketing. The participants will also benefit from a digital network of networking and common thinking for all the take-off centers. The program is a combination of the business sector and partners in it are senior mentors in the hi-tech industries, medicine, ecology, and more.
Yamit Ezer Shikulovski, CEO of the network of community centers in Kiryat Yam:
"At a time when high-tech is the growth engine of the economy and a central part of the changing world of employment, it is important that access to it be possible for every boy and girl, boy and girl who wants it, and thus access to the necessary employment skills of the 21st century will be granted. The Nativ Meerem program in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology is a platform that allows young people to be exposed to career options in high-tech, meet senior figures and experience the entrepreneurial process accompanied by professional mentors. We are proud that the Kiryat Yam community center network was chosen along with a few other authorities to lead the pilot. The network will build the best platform for the youth to do so, and we wish everyone success!"
The Mirror Centers - the national program for promoting young entrepreneurial thinking
The program comes to address the current situation, in which populations coming from the geographic and social periphery in Israel, women, Arab society and ultra-Orthodox society are characterized by underrepresentation in the high-tech industry today and later in other industries that will undergo a technological revolution.
Tal Basachs, CEO of the Community Association:
"The community centers are at the forefront of reducing the gaps in Israeli society, and so this time as well thanks to the joint program with the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The "Mirror Centers" program aims and promotes a future where everyone has the ability to enjoy participating and enjoy the fruits of the high tech industry. Investing in this program at an early age will not only provide tools, develop a sense of ability and connect children and youth in the social periphery geographically to the field that is the engine of the Israeli economy, but thanks to the mentoring component, will allow the children and youth to get to know and have direct access to personalities and business companies in the field."
At the center of the program, experiential experience for the children and youth in entrepreneurship centers that simulate a work environment in the high-tech industry, work with mentors from the industry, and in appropriate cases - bringing a project from the idea stage to its actual execution stage. The program is an initiative of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Society for Community Development.
'Mirror Centers' is an informal education program, which will take place in entrepreneurship centers that will be established for this purpose in the Community Centers of the Community Centers in the social and geographic periphery of Israel. The entrepreneurship centers will be entrepreneurial spaces that will simulate the work environment in advanced companies in high-tech and industry. An open environment that invites work partnerships, Knowledge sharing and mutual fertilization. A space where there are the necessary means in an aesthetic environment that is pleasant to stay in, an environment for the development of a cooperative entrepreneurial community.
Children and teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 will participate in the program, who will experience developing an idea, from the entrepreneurship phase to the project phase itself, in a modular and flexible manner, which will be adapted to the needs of each participant. Students who wish to do so will acquire skills such as presentation, English, preparing presentations, building a work plan and marketing. Also, a network of all the participants will be established through a digital platform, with the aim of enabling contact between the various centers and sharing knowledge and ideas.
Volunteers from various fields (the world of Israeli high-tech, medicine, ecology, contribution to the community, etc.) will be involved and will accompany the children so that each group with a common entrepreneurial idea will have a mentor/mentor who will help them progress in group work while adhering to standards and work methods from the business and entrepreneurial world. In addition, the participants will receive support from volunteers from the community, companies engaged in social contribution and business companies in order to be able to help them realize and turn the ideas into feasible ventures.