 | | (Click to enlarge) | | MCTC participants on Bilingualism and Multilingualism Course, visited the Bilingual School in Jerusalem, and sat at classes given in Arabic and Hebrew at the same time. |
The Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC), established in Haifa in 1961, is one of MASHAV's first training centers. It was founded in order to train professional women and men from developing countries and transitional societies, providing them with the necessary tools for women's empowerment. To this end, three areas of study have been developed, all with the objective of enabling women to participate in the development process of their communities and consequently advance their status: * Community Development, particularly NGO and Community Service Management, Media Strategies for Social Change, and Rehabilitation within the Community; * Micro-enterprise Development, including Organization and Management, Support Systems and Rural Tourism, all with an emphasis on women entrepreneurs; * Early Childhood Education, including teacher-training methodologies for kindergartens and day-care, children with special needs, parental involvement, emergent literacy, science, music and art. The Center's underlying philosophy stresses the importance of bottom-up, grassroots-led development and the recognition of women's contribution to their countries' development. MCTC methodology incorporates a strongly "hands-on" approach, wherever possible based on observation visits, case studies presented by participants from their own work experience and problem solving through simulation exercises. International courses are held in English, Spanish and French. In addition, several tailor-made courses and workshops are commissioned annually by government and non-governmental bodies on specific topics. The majority of courses and workshops run between three to seven weeks and most participants are professionals, aged between 25-50, with at least seven years experience in their field. Week-long International Seminars and Symposia take place biennially on development themes of current interest for women leaders active in public life in the developing and industrialized countries. Throughout the year two-to-three-week workshops are conducted in host countries at the request of government agencies or non-governmental organizations in the trainees' countries of origin. MCTC cooperates with a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations (ACWF, CCBCC, Soros), international aid agencies (USAID, OAS, IDB, GIFRID, WBI), international women's organizations (Soroptimist International, Women's Mediterranean Forum, International Council of Women) and United Nations specialized agencies such as ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNCTAD and UNDP. |