ATUDOT LE’ISRAEL - Israel Atudot Department

Israel Atudot is a national strategic plan to improve the public service sector in Israel, which employs over one million people, by creating a system for cultivating managerial and professional human capital.

The goal of the program is to promote the State of Israel's prosperity through its public servants working in unison in a manner that is professional, values-driven, official, citizen-oriented, for the public good and with long-term planning.

In the past decade, there has been an ongoing increase in the number of Atuda programs that have been established in the public service sector. These include preparatory programs for the Civil Service, central and local government cadet programs, programs to identify and train mid-level managers and programs for senior officials.

Although these Atuda programs, which are at varying stages of development, share a common ultimate goal, their advancement is the result of local initiatives, and so far, a comprehensive governmental outlook has not been established regarding the cultivation of the managerial and professional human resources in the public service sector.

In light of this, the Government of Israel decided in July 2016, to adopt the recommendations of the Israel Atudot report, which was prepared by an inter-ministerial team of professionals, including representatives from the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministries of Finance, Health, Education, Welfare and the Interior, the Civil Service Commission, and representatives of the public. The team's work was accompanied by a multi-sectoral dialogue with hundreds of participants.

The program attempted, for the first time ever, to comprehensively promote the idea of establishing the ranks of the entire public service sector in Israel and not only the Civil Service, and focus was put on the four systems that provide the central services to the public: the education, health and welfare systems and local government. This means that the program relates to the public service sector at large, with a view to systems and not organizations (the education system, the health system, etc.).

Israel Atudot creates a range of Atuda programs, both managerial and professional, and trains officeholders who will contend in the future to fill key positions in public service in its broader sense. The range of programs includes promoting the ethos of the public servant, channels for nurturing excellence, cadet programs, programs for training mid-level officials and systemic leadership programs for senior officials.

The program is characterized by a strict selection process and includes representation of all parts of Israeli society and intensive group training that focuses on professionalism, values, decorum, citizen-orientation for the better good and a long-term viewpoint. Most of the cadet programs award their participants a scholarship for an academic degree, a living allowance and exposure to equivalent systems abroad, and they provide placement at the end of the program.

A potential future picture

Imagine a director general of a local authority whose team is joined by an outstanding director for the education department, a graduate of the Advot program. Imagine that the local authority engineer hires a cadet who has dreamed of becoming a public servant and has received intensive training in the Cadets for Strategy and Urban Planning program.

Imagine the staff at that local authority. The outstanding employees have been identified and sent to Atuda programs in the fields of welfare and formal and informal education. Imagine that the chief of the local police station hires a graduate of the Cadets for the Police Force program. Imagine these alumni working as a network—together with graduates of the National Leadership, Governance and Administration Academy, the Cadets for Civil Service program and other Atuda programs, who are posted in pivotal positions of influence in government offices—to advance the quality of life of the residents of that local authority.

Now, imagine that same local authority a decade later, after a critical mass of graduates of these programs has joined the ranks and become established in the local fabric. Imagine government offices, local governments, government-funded entities and large NGOs after they have hired worthy managerial and professional Atuda program graduates with a formal view of public service.

Imagine the State of Israel several decades from now, when thousands of graduates of Israel Atudot programs are positioned all over the country, representing all parts of Israeli society in local and central government and in civil society. They have been taught to cooperate, to think for the long-term and act officially for the benefit of all Israel's citizens.

The hope is that these Atuda graduates, including currently serving civil servants and those who will join the public service as part of the influx of excellence streamed into public service, will serve as a catalyst for the renewal processes of, and change in, the public service.

To illustrate this, the following is a list of some of the Atuda programs in the public service sector, which are working in cooperation with other bodies in the Civil Service and in the public sphere:

Senior level

•  The Senior Staff Fellowship at the Civil Service's National Leadership, Governance and Administration Academy
• The Wexner Senior Leadership Program 
• The Israel National Defense College (INDC) Senior Officers' Program

Mid-Level

• The Senior Staff Atuda Program at the Civil Service's National Leadership, Governance and Administration Academy
•  Maoz Fellows program
•  Advot—Leadership Pipeline for the Israeli Education System 
•  Inbar—Healthcare Management Program
• Makom—Municipal Leadership Pipeline Program
•  Ro'im Rachok¬ Program—Management Pipeline for Social Services in Israel
•  Mashpi'im Program—Haredim in the Civil Service and Local Government
•  The Mimshak Fellowship for Young Leadership of Scientists as Scientific Advisers in Government Offices 
•  Digital Leaders—Agents of Change through Digital Innovation
• The JDC Israel Institute for Leadership and Governance
•  The Wexner Israel Fellowship for Leadership Development for Leaders in Israel's Public Sector
•  The Mandel School for Educational Leadership
•  Mandel Programs for Leadership Development in the Haredi Community 
•  Mandel Youth Leadership Program
•  The Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev 
•  The Mandel Center for Leadership in the North

Entry Level

•  Cadets for Civil Service Program
•  Atidim-Pais Cadets for Local Government—Bachelor's program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
•  Atidim-Pais Cadets for Local Government— Bachelor's program at Tel-Hai College
•  Rothschild-Pais Cadets for Local Government—Masters program in Public Administration (MPA) and Policy at the University of Haifa
•  Rothschild-Pais Cadets for Local Government—Master's program in Strategy and Urban Planning at the Technion
•  Rothschild Cadets Program for Informal Education—B.Ed in Informal Education and Social Sciences, with Minor in Public Policy from Oranim College (including a teaching certification and a youth worker certification)
•  Shoham—Cadets for the Police Force Program
• The Foreign Ministry's Cadet Program
• Cadet Program for Israel's Economic Envoys
•  Mashpi'im Program—Haredim in the Civil Service and Local Government

Specialized Programs

•  The Mimshak Fellowship for Young Leadership of Scientists as Scientific Advisers in Government Offices 
•  Milken Innovation Center Fellows Program for outstanding leadership to promote economic growth in Israel through internships in government offices, applied research and training