Labor Minister Yosef Almogi said today that Israel has a plethora of graduates in the humanities and social sciences entering the country as immigrants and suggested that re-training programs were the only viable solution to the problem. Almogi spoke at commencement exercises at the Hebrew University’s Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at which 23 new immigrants were awarded degrees. All had completed a 13-month intensive course at the school.
Almogi said that 40 percent of recent immigrants were professionals, with a substantial number holding degrees in the social sciences and humanities. This adds up, he said, to an oversupply of such graduates. He said his Ministry was currently organizing retraining courses for immigrants in which 150 persons have enrolled so far. Today’s graduates, aged 21-29, who received degrees in social work, already hold bachelors degrees in sociology, psychology, anthropology, education and other social sciences. They earned them in schools in the U.S., Canada, France, South Africa and South America.
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