The 160th IAF Flight School Course will end in a festive ceremony on Thursday (July 1). 20% of the graduates were not born in Israel.

The graduation ceremony of the 160th IAF Flight School Course will take place on Thursday (July 1) and will be attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and the Commander in Chief of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan.

The cadets can chose one of four possible subject majors for a Bachelor’s degree that they complete during the pilot course. In the current course, 25% studied IT Management, 32.5% studied Economics & Management, 37.5% studied Government & Politics, 2.5% studied Computer Science and 2.5% had already acquired a Bachelor’s degree prior to the course.

47.5% of the graduates live in northern Israel, 47.5% are from central Israel, and 5% are from southern Israel. The northernmost town in which a graduate resides is Moshav Yonatan in the Golan Heights. The southernmost community is the city of Beer Sheva. 42% of the graduates live in urban areas, 33% live in community towns, 12% are from a moshav (cooperative town), 10% are from a kibbutz, and 2.5% live in regional councils.

20% of the graduates were not born in Israel. 32.5% of the graduates speak a foreign language fluently: 15% speak English, 12.5% speak Russian, 2.5% speak French, and 2.5% speak Danish.

7.5% of the graduates identify themselves as religious, while 7.5% consider themselves as being traditional.

75% of the graduates studied math and science as a major subject in high school, 20% integrated math and science with the humanities as their course of study in high school, and 2.5% solely studied the humanities.

45% of the course graduates were active in youth movements before their recruitment; 12.5% of the graduates were in the Scouts Movement, 10% in Bnei Akiva, 5% in Bnei Moshavim, and the rest were from other youth movements.

12.5% of the graduates volunteered for a year of community service before enlistment in the IDF, and 13% took part in pre-military preparatory programs. 22.5% of the graduates served in other parts of the IDF before joining the pilot’s course, and 12.5% started the course in previous cycles and are completing it with the current class.

As for the family background of the graduates, 17% of the graduates’ mothers work in teaching and instruction, while 25% of the graduates’ fathers work in engineering. 35% are the oldest sibling in their families, and 35% are the youngest. One graduate is married and has one child.

(IDF Spokesman / YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)