A Young Leadership Training Program: An Evaluation Study

This study was a joint initiative and undertaking of the JDC-Brookdale Institute and the Youth and Society Administration of the Ministry of Education.

“Madatzim” are young leaders who are recruited in ninth grade and remain active through twelfth grade. They act as leaders for younger children, and are active in the community. The training of madatzim is the responsibility of coordinators (youth coordinators and young leadership coordinators), the youth department, the community center, or the municipal department of youth. This study is part of a series of studies on the development of young leadership programs by the Youth and Society Administration of the Ministry of Education. In 1998, an evaluation study was conducted of various leadership programs of the Ministry of Education, including the young leadership program. That study revealed a need to examine an aspect of these programs that had yet to be studied in depth: young leadership training programs. Two additional evaluation studies – on the training of young shelach leaders and of student and youth council representatives – are being conducted concurrent with this study.

This study evaluated the local course (60-90 hours) for madatzim, which meets once every two weeks during the school year. It also examined the new training program manual, “Becoming a Young Leader”, which was issued by the Youth and Society Administration in 2000, and the support provided to coordinators during their work.

The following are among the study’s principal findings:

  • Most (91%) of the coordinators reported that they possessed the new training program manual, “Becoming a Young Leader”. Most (87%) of them reported using it to some extent, and more than half of them participated in in-service training about it.
  • Most of the coordinators used written materials provided by the Youth and Society Administration, the municipality, or the region in compiling a training program for madatzim. Eighty-eight percent added content from their own pool of resources. This combination enabled them to adapt the program to needs in the field, and also met with the recommendations of the Youth and Society Administration.
  • Professionals in the field praised the program manual and the texts used in it for being innovative and up-to-date. However, they claimed that the program’s attractiveness varied, depending on the characteristics of the madatzim.
  • According to professionals in the field, the program’s main weakness was its method of discussing texts. They felt the method was more appropriate to formal education, and that its exclusive use prevented the madatzim from becoming acquainted with other methods. They voiced the need for more varied and more experiential training activities.
  • Most (81%) of the coordinators felt they had someone to turn to when they encountered difficulty guiding the madatzim. The primary “address” for help was the regional supervisor. Young leadership coordinators also turned to the youth coordinator or to their colleagues, depending on the type of difficulty.

The findings of this study were presented to the program team at the Youth and Society Administration. They are being used to create an infrastructure for improving the process of training madatzim in general, and for improving the new training program and in-service training about it, in particular.