The Foreign Ministry's cadet course is the only program which trains and prepares diplomats for careers in the Israeli foreign service.
The State Public Service Commission Tender for diplomatic posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the principal mechanism for recruiting diplomats into the foreign service. The number of recruits is based on the retirement forecast of the Ministry's employees on the one hand and the deployment forecast of missions worldwide on the other.
The target recruits are Israeli citizens, graduates of Economics, Middle East Studies, International Relations and Public Administration. In addition to these, recruitment includes the full gamut of other academic fields.
The aims of the cadet course are:
- Training the young diplomats to meet the demands of the first mission abroad, usually serving in small missions in developing countries.
- Planting the seeds for the development of a full diplomatic career.
Admission requirements include a full university education (BA), command of languages and passing of the cadet tender examinations. The selection process includes three stages: written examinations, assessment centers and an interview before a public committee.
The training lasts three to five years (as stated in the tender) and consists of three stages.
- An intensive theoretical and academic part lasting six months, in which the cadets acquire knowledge in fields relevant to Israeli diplomacy, while obtaining and polishing skills and abilities of the trade, all this through lectures, reading, tours, and practice.
- The second part involves on-the-job training in various departments of the ministry.
- The third stage consists of working in Israeli missions abroad, in one of the aforementioned posts.
Cadet training includes instruction in foreign languages, in information technology, and the acquisition basic diplomatic skills such as media presentations, public speaking, effective written communication, etc.
Command of the Hebrew language is assumed and is needed for the examination process as well as for the training and the job itself.
The tender for the next course for Foreign Ministry recruits has been published on its Hebrew website, in all major daily papers in Israel, and in the internet site of the Civil Service Commission, the government body in charge of recruitment of personnel of government offices.