A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February 28, 2013 illustration file picture. Photo: REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo.

CTech – Israeli companies Rafael Advanced Combat Systems and RAD Bynet Communications have entered a new cooperation agreement that includes initiating an educational-employment project that will help young people in the country’s northern region train in AI and big data technologies. The project will be led by Kaleidoo, which belongs to Bynet Communications, and will last one year for recent veterans of the IDF.

The program plans to offer comprehensive and practical training so that its graduates can integrate easily into Israel’s tech sector, which is currently undergoing a talent shortage. Taking place at Kaleidoo’s development center in Bar-Lev Park in Galilee, Rafael and Bynet hope to promote Israel’s periphery and encourage young people to strive for jobs they otherwise would not have the opportunity to pursue.

“Our initiative is intended to address three major challenges currently facing the Israeli economy: a shortage of high-tech workforce, especially in special and leading professions such as AI and big data; maintaining a security-technological advantage as demonstrated in the operation Guardian of the Walls; and the acute need to close the digital gap between the periphery and the center,” said Yehuda Zisapel, Chairman of the RAD Bynet Group. “This project mobilizes the leading companies in Israel alongside the support of governmental institutions and offers a holistic solution — from training to employment, to ensure the future of families in the geographical periphery of Israel.”

“As one of the oldest companies in the Israeli high-tech ecosystem, we see paramount importance in leading projects of economic and social significance,” added Alon Ben-Zur, CEO of Bynet Communications. “The current project combines the two and we hope that in the future we will be able to expand it and ensure the future of as many families as possible from the geographical periphery of Israel.”

Rafael designs, develops, and manufactures high-tech defense systems and provides its systems to the Israel Defense Forces and foreign customers around the world. The RAD-Bynet Group grew out of Bynet Data Communications, which Zisapel founded in 1975. Today, it has more than 4,500 employees at 18 global branches.