High-Tech Matriculation

During the past decade, the Israeli high-tech industry has grown at an impressive rate and now accounts for 12% of employed workers in the economy. Another 5% of salaried workers are employed in technology positions in organizations undergoing accelerated digitization processes. This growth was partly made possible by the substantial increase in the number of high school graduates with five units of mathematics and by the expansion of the relevant academic programs in higher education.

A public committee established by the government in 2022 was assigned the task of recommending steps to increase and diversify the human capital employed in Israeli high-tech. The committee drew on findings from a longitudinal study conducted by the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University. According to the research, when they were in high school, most high-tech employees studied five units of mathematics, and of these, many also added five units in English and physics, and/or computer science.

This combination of study track majors, which was named “high-tech matriculation,” was central to the government’s decision regarding the committee’s findings. The government decided to set a target, to be attained by 2028, aiming for 15% of high school graduates (about 20,000 students) to graduate with a high-tech matriculation. The decision allocates significant resources and defines ambitious targets specifically for female students, students from the Arab sector, and students from the periphery.