“Our mission is to provide access to the best education for the Russian Jewish community. Using our experience in Technology Education we can help young people to improve their knowledge, acquire new skills and become more competitive and valuable in the job market. The Russian IT sector is actively developing and we are happy that we have an opportunity to respond to the current trends and challenges
and prepare young Jewish students for the most appealing professions.
This is an investment in their future.”
Mikhail Libkin, ORT Russia director of development

This past Fall, a pilot group of six Moscow Hillel students began to study at Moscow ORT Schools’ Cisco Academy. Students will take the CCENT course, which provides knowledge and practical skills in building and supporting computer networks as well as the fundamentals of the internet. Both Hillel and ORT subsidized their fees.

The Cisco Network Academy was opened at the Moscow ORT Technology school as well as in other ORT educational institutions five years ago to raise the level of ICT training in Russian schools.

This year ORT and Hillel expanded the program to include Hillel students.

Elena Voltsinger, Hillel Russia director, told eJP: “In Hillel our goal is to open doors to the Jewish community for students as well as take care of their professional future. They are at the beginning of their careers; they are eager to find the best job possible – that is why we see this initiative as a very important one. This is the first project in our road map of providing possibilities of professional development for our students. IT-related jobs are very popular in Russia today and we are happy to help our students become more valuable in the Russian job market.”

“Since I was little, I knew that IT is the future. This course is touching a lot on the subject of ‘Internet of Things’, which is the main trend in IT now. I haven’t yet decided on my future profession but I’m so inspired by this fantastic experience. It is almost like you can look inside the Internet universe, which is hidden from the regular users,” added Polyna Kagan, a Moscow Cinematography University student and program participant.