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World ORT program to gear high schoolers toward engineering

Monday, 3. February 2014 - 15:26

An international $50 million program is aiming to solve the acute shortage of engineers in Israel. The World ORT organization for advanced science studies has launched the Anieres Elite Academy international scholarship program to prepare some 600 Israeli and foreign 10th-graders for an engineering degree at the prestigious Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
With a severe shortage of engineers in the Israeli job market and high-tech firms posting numerous job listings seeking engineers every week, the program, the first of its kind in Israel, will allow students from the Negev to the Galilee to study science and technology in high school and, after seven years, complete an engineering degree at the Technion. The program provides a full scholarship, worth more than 100,000 shekels ($28,400).

Selection for the project began recently. Some 600 students will eventually be chosen. Half the candidates hail from Israel's north and south, while the rest are new immigrants who moved to Israel without their parents through the Jewish Agency's Naale Program.

Through the Technion's enrichment program, about 60 students each year (over the course of 10 years) will study math and science at WIZO Nahalal boarding school. After finishing high school, the students will go on to study toward a bachelor's degree in engineering at the Technion. Upon receiving their degrees, the students will serve in the Israel Defense Forces as engineers.

The scholarship will cover living expenses at the WIZO Nahalal boarding school and courses at the Technion, in addition to student allowances until the end of 12th grade. The Anieres Elite Academy program was founded in Switzerland in the 1950s by World ORT to train Jewish students around the globe for careers in engineering. Only recently, ORT joined forces with the Education Ministry to fund the program in Israel. A self-made Jewish millionaire, who was a graduate of the elite program in Switzerland and made his fortune in the United States, numbers among the project's main donors.

The program has already begun. About 20 Jewish students arrived in Israel, starting the program in ninth grade at the WIZO Nahalal boarding school.

Avi Ganon, the CEO of World ORT, said, "We are proud to be launching this unique program. Our goal is to give young people a valuable degree, which will allow them to become the next engineering stars in Israel and demonstrate their full potential. Israel is a high-tech powerhouse, which is crying out desperately for engineers in all fields. Another goal of this program is to provide 600 trained engineers over the course of the next 10 years."

Yael Branovsky

Source: 
www.israelhayom.com
Tags: 
engineers
international scholarship program
Israel
World ORT