It’s been called the Startup Nation because it boasts more startups per capita than any other country in the world, yet Israel faces an acute shortage of skilled workers as students turn their backs on studies in science and math, according to an article from The Times of Israel. In an interview with the publication, Nobel Prize winner Professor Dan Shechtman says the government must do more to encourage science and engineering studies at a young age and raise the level of teaching.
According to the article, the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s chief scientist warns that without immediate action by the government, the country’s high tech industry will fall short by 10,000 engineers and programmers in the next decade. The share of Israelis graduating in the sciences reportedly fell from 13% in 2004 to 8.7% in 2014. Schechtman has developed a plan for innovation studies for Ort Israel Sci-Tech Schools, a chain of vocational schools, with the aim of encouraging students to take up the sciences and giving them theoretical and practical knowledge to set up a future startup.
Read The Times of Israel article here.