Questions & Answers
Answers to the questions we get asked most often
Choosing a Profession
Your question is very common, and many others like you experience the same embarrassment and confusion, especially at a young age.
The college offers a high-quality, deep process that will bring order to your thoughts and assist you in choosing the profession that is right for you. It starts with a special aptitude test and continues with an in-depth meeting with the Director of Studies, during which various perspectives are weighed, leading to a well-founded and informed decision.
First, everyone has special skills, even if they aren't aware of them. The counseling process is designed, among other things, to identify and bring them to light.
Second—skills are only part of the whole, and in many cases and professions, prominent skills are not the main component required, as detailed in the next question.
Many tend to cling to skills as the primary, perhaps even sole, parameter reflecting their suitability for a profession. However, in reality, skills are only one of the components of compatibility. Alongside them exist your unique personality structure, your inclination toward certain fields of interest, your expectations regarding work style and environment, your income potential, and your personal ability to cope with different levels of training and professional development alongside daily life.
The process offered by the Haredi Center integrates all these considerations to help you make a wise and informed decision so that you find what is exactly right for you.
While every profession is characterized by key skills and traits required for learning and practicing it, many professions are applied in diverse ways in the workplace. Therefore, people with different personality profiles, inclinations, and prominent skills can often find a good fit in the same profession.
Additionally, there are professions where the challenges encountered during studies are rarely present in the actual workplace, or at least not in all positions; this flexibility is also examined during the counseling and selection process.
Beyond the fact that different professions can be expressed through various paths, most people are well-suited for multiple, sometimes even unrelated, professions.
The fear of not choosing the "right" profession can be paralyzing and prevent action, but for the reason mentioned above—and others—it is unjustified. One must recognize that there is more than one way to achieve fulfillment and success.
Furthermore, as believing Jews, we are commanded to make an effort, which includes choosing a profession wisely, but from that point on, the Almighty orchestrates matters and guides us toward our personal realization and success.
Since the core objective of the Haredi Center is the high-quality employment of its graduates, the college offers only programs that have been thoroughly vetted and are known to be in demand with high placement rates—while also considering how they fit into daily life.
This applies both to the selection of the program itself and to the focus given to the flexibility within each course of study.
The process is very simple and efficient.
You are welcome to leave your details in the inquiry form. Our representatives will get back to you as soon as possible to schedule an aptitude test or a counseling session, and from there, proceed to registration.
Admission Requirements and Study Challenges
Firstly, the aptitude test is not primarily intended to "accept" or "reject" the applicant, but rather to clarify, among other things, which tendencies and skills exist and are strengthened in the advisee as part of the set of components required for suitability. Usually, even if the suitability for a certain profession is relatively low, suitability for another profession will be found.
Secondly, most of the programs offered by the college have high employment and earning potential, and at the same time, it can be said that they are accessible to almost everyone.
Additionally, sometimes the emotional pressure that may accompany a test process masks true skills, and our consultants know how to take this possibility into account, try to isolate it, and discover the true potential of the advisee. And above all, in most cases, the component of motivation and perseverance is even more important than the level of skills, and whoever truly wants to and invests—will also succeed, with God's help.
Were it not for the extensive experience we have gained, we might not have known how to answer this question with such certainty. However, after 30 years of operation and over 15,000 graduates, the data speaks for itself, and B"H (with the help of Heaven), the success is very high and beyond doubt.
The college operates various preparatory programs according to the exact needs of each profession, through which gaps are successfully closed in preparation for the studies in the major.
Furthermore, it is precisely in a preparatory program close to the studies that accurately addresses the needs, that sometimes an even better result is achieved compared to students who studied core subjects in the distant past.
This is an important and relevant question, indicating a serious attitude from the inquirer who does not want to rush into registration without understanding if they can successfully complete the track.
Indeed, the studies require effort and perseverance, but the college does everything in its power to provide warm and personal support to ease the process, allocates significant practice time during the classes themselves, and adapts the schedule to the Jewish calendar and school holidays.
Bottom line: Those who truly want to succeed, will. Thousands of graduates with families who successfully finished their studies and integrated into quality jobs or developed independently in an awe-inspiring way—can testify to this.
Tuition and Scholarships
In most programs, it is possible to receive high to full funding for men, and various scholarships for women. [Details can be found on the scholarships page and next to each program offered on the site]. However, even in cases where you will be required to pay out of pocket without receiving a refund, you must remember that this is a powerful investment, the value of which is usually much higher than any other investment. The payment can be spread over a large number of installments so that the monthly burden is not high. Usually, with one or two paychecks, you cover the entire expense.
Curriculum Content
In most of the college's courses, you receive recognized, official, and highly sought-after certificates such as a diploma from MAHAT, the Ministry of Labor, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Tax Consultants Council, and more.
The study contents are determined according to the guidelines of these bodies and consist of theoretical knowledge alongside practical knowledge and experience. In general, compared to academic studies, the practical knowledge component in our programs is usually significantly higher, and you go out to the market better prepared and mature for work.
In some programs, the college is granted a certain degree of flexibility in choosing content, and we use this to emphasize the most sought-after and important material, based on our ongoing connection with organizations, companies, and employers.
The answer to this question is complex and requires looking at many perspectives without resorting to slogans. When comparing a practical engineering program to an academic one, you must compare the same profession. If you compare the admission requirements, program length, and intensity—including all required stages after graduation—to a practical engineering program in the same field, you will find the gap is much larger than it may appear. In professions like engineering and architecture, the challenge of completing an academic degree is particularly great for a typical applicant from the Haredi community, especially for an adult with a family who also needs to work for a living.
In most professions, personal personality traits and individual capabilities constitute the main part of development and success. Thousands of our graduates who have reached top-tier positions or developed impressively in independent careers, often far exceeding those with academic degrees in the same field, can attest to this. In other words, the gap—much of which is "image-based" and might carry more weight when first entering the job market—tends to shrink and fade as one progresses in professional roles.
Academic programs are often loaded with raw, theoretical knowledge and sometimes miss part of the mark, coming at the expense of practical skills and knowledge so needed in the field. They may be more suited to research and development (a field few turn to), but in the practical aspect, practical engineering programs specifically emphasize the knowledge and skills the graduate needs the day after graduation. If in the past "academia" was a common standard dictated by employers, in the modern world, many employers and employment sectors tend to evaluate individuals based on other parameters of practical knowledge and personal capability.
Regarding value alignment, the contrast a Haredi person might encounter in academia is extremely high, both in terms of values integrated into the content (especially in certain fields) and in terms of the institution, its environment, and the spirit that prevails there. In some cases, regulatory systems do set threshold requirements that include an academic degree. It is true that in many cases, a practical engineer may not meet the criteria for a specific position due to gaps regarding licenses tied to an academic degree, but according to the Practical Engineers Law enacted several years ago, in any public sector job posting that requires a general academic degree without a specific characterization, the practical engineer is considered to hold a degree for that purpose. This law may provide an advantage for those striving to compete for public sector positions at one stage or another.
The Haredi Center for Vocational Training - Advantages
Since the compass of the Haredi Center is the high-quality employment of its graduates, the college offers only programs that have been thoroughly examined and found to be in demand with high placement rates—alongside a reasonable possibility of integrating them into daily life. This is true both for the program itself and for the emphases given within it, and for the degree of flexibility existing in each and every program.
Placement and Employment
As the saying goes, "the baker does not testify about his own dough," but in this answer, we will provide information that anyone can check rather than relying on what is written here.
Firstly, many times that declaration of a "Haredi campus" is far from reality in the field. Additionally, even if in practice there is a separate environment and other characteristics that make it suitable for Haredim to some degree, there is truly no substitute for a real Haredi college, managed by a Haredi staff that knows firsthand the conditions required for the Haredi student from many aspects—technical, professional, and ethical—and our great success over the years testifies to this.
Secondly, unlike bodies that operate solely from business motives, the Haredi Center for Vocational Training was founded solely to provide a real response to the needs of the Haredi public and its livelihood. From this perspective, which is embedded in the DNA of the Haredi Center, all activities—from selecting the programs to screening students and the content and emphases of the studies—are all geared toward employment success.
It is important to emphasize that just as maintaining Jewish values is important to the college and is non-negotiable, the professional level is also among the highest in the field without compromise, and is expressed in modern, equipped classrooms and laboratories and top-tier lecturers.
We always keep the good of the students and the empowerment of their employment potential before our eyes. Not as a side goal or a business tool for continuing operations, but as a central target for which the Haredi Center was founded.
The initial tendency is to mistakenly think that being a graduate of a general-population college will position you higher than the Haredi Center, but the truth is quite the opposite. Through God's help and thanks to the personal care, commitment, and great investment of the college in all aspects, including the high level of study—the college is ranked among the highest in most of the government exams its students take, and in many cases, there is a sequence of many years of achieving first place in certain exams.
This fact is also reflected in the final output and the impression that the college's graduates have made and continue to make on employers.
Day by day, there is growing recognition among employers that it is precisely the Haredi Center graduates who are of the highest level!
The Haredi Center for Vocational Training has had a dedicated placement department for years whose entire purpose is to assist in this process. This activity focuses on three different areas:
1. Guiding graduates through the proper job-search process, both through workshops and through personal support and help with resume writing.
2. Promoting employer relations and offering job openings to students and graduates. The main effort is not to simply pass along hundreds of links from job boards—most of which require experience—but to build trust with employers and offer fresh graduates quality positions that do not require prior experience.
3. Regularly monitoring the employment status of each program and re-evaluating it in light of changes in the job market.
The answer depends on each specific profession, but for most majors, the answer is yes. Not only is it possible, but it is highly recommended to start gaining experience while studying, so that upon receiving your diploma, you start from a higher and more mature position.
Of course, the range of jobs available to students differs from that of graduates and becomes more professional year by year as significant knowledge is acquired.
The Haredi Center’s placement department also works to locate and refer suitable jobs to students according to their stage of study.
Spirituality and Values
Firstly, in many cases, the choice to pursue a path of study and employment should be based on the opinion of a spiritual authority, with each individual relying on their own Rabbis. However, after the decision to pursue studies and employment has been made, the Haredi Center does everything to ensure that the content delivered in the various study programs does not constitute any obstacle, Heaven forbid, to the holy values that serve as a light for our path. This includes the approach to computing and the internet, which is under strictly monitored and completely protected filtering.
Also, regarding job placement, the placement department makes efforts to ensure that the positions are, in principle, suitable for its graduates. However, it instructs graduates to conduct a thorough check before making a decision, based on the facts they find in the field and the conditions suitable for them according to the guidance of their Rabbis.