Anières Elite Academy is a World ORT science and technology scholarship program, based in Israel and aimed at both native born Israelis and young people from overseas. Students study science and technology in high school and continue to the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology to complete a university degree in engineering.  This program was developed in response to the reduction in the numbers of students choosing to study science and technology subjects in high school. This has resulted in a growing lack of engineers in the IDF and Israeli industry. Starting in 2013 and running over a duration of 17 years, approximately 600 young people are expected to graduate from this program and eventually provide the Israeli job market with engineers.

This scholarship program is inspired by the ORT Central Institute in Anières, Switzerland, which operated from 1947-1997 and whose graduates went on to forge successful careers in a wide variety of professional fields.

• Students attend high school at the WIZO Nahalal Youth Village in Northern Israel near Haifa.
• Students from overseas begin the program in grade 9, with a year of intensive Hebrew language study alongside a regular curriculum at WIZO Nahalal.
• Native born Israeli students join the overseas students in grade 10 and they study together through high school.
• Throughout high school students also participate in science and technology enrichment classes – some at WIZO Nahalal and some at the Technion in Haifa.
• Upon completion of grade 12, all students who make suitable progress continue to the Technion to study for a four year engineering degree.
• Those students who are/become Israeli citizens will be granted permission by the Ministry of Defense to defer their military service until the completion of their studies.  After graduating from the Technion they will serve in the army as engineering professionals.
• The innovative M&M robo-physics program was implemented in Anières at the beginning of this school year as part of the national science and technology program to increase the number of engineers in Israel by 2025. 

The Anières Elite Academy is run in partnership with the Naale-Elite Academy Program of the Israeli Ministry of Education.

See the Anieres Website for more details.

In a study carried out at the Education, Science and Technology Faculty of the Technion (Israel Technology Institute), a special program called "Robophysics" was defined. The program combines physics, mathematics and engineering, and is intended principally for Senior High School students studying science and engineering subjects at a high level. The object of the program is to increase the interest of its graduates in science and engineering studies, to develop their systems thinking skills, and to train them for teamwork. These skills, which in general are not studied at engineering faculties, are very important in the engineer's work in industry.

In the program the students are required to complete engineering tasks ("mini-projects") in teamwork and under the guidance of experienced engineers with a rich teaching background, using a sophisticated robotics kit made by LEGO®, MINDSTORMS® Education EV3. With this kit it is possible to build a variety of electromechanical vehicles and systems.

The program graduates, who successfully meet the requirements, including defending the final project before an outside panel, earn matriculation examination points equivalent to implementation of "30%" (Significant Learning - taken from the new curriculum) +15% physics laboratories as part of the requirements, at the level of 2 matriculation examination units (45%) out of 5 units in physics.

The program is officially an integral part of the "Anières" program for furthering science, and of the President of the State of Israel's program for finding and furthering scientists and inventors of the future ("Nitzanei HaTechnion" - Technion excellence program for young students). These programs were designed to provide a solution for the dearth of engineers and scientists in Israel - a dearth that poses a real threat to the country's economic and security robustness - by promoting excellence of high school students in science and in engineering.

The “Aeronautics in the Valley” enrichment program for Anières Elite Academy students was created in partnership with Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion and senior officials at Rafael.

The students join the program in the 10th grade and continue to deepen their understanding in the field of aeronautics over three years. In the first year, the students learn about the aviation industry through lectures and tours, and in the proceeding years they can join two elective courses taught in the Department of Aerospace Engineering: "Sports Aviation" in the 11th grade and "Introduction to Aerospace Engineering" in the 12th grade. The courses are taught in the WIZO Nahalal Youth Village by lecturers from the Technion.

Experienced engineers from leading hi-tech companies have begun to teach high school robophysics to tomorrow's engineers to help meet the national challenge of doubling the number of hi-tech employees by 2025.

This pilot project is being implemented by World ORT Kadima Mada in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's science and technology division and IATI (Israel Advanced Technology Industries).  It is taking place in World ORT Kadima Mada's Aniéres Elite Academy in Nahalal Youth Village amongst 15-16 year olds in Grade 10.  The gifted students in this flagship school are from all over the world and focus specifically on science and technology studies. 

The M&M pilot program involves leading engineers from the hi-tech company SanDisk (Israel), who have a social conscience and the motivation to make an impact, spending half a day every week in the classroom teaching robophysics (a mixture of robotics and physics), while ensuring that school students are learning the most up-to-date skills and have access to the latest available information. These engineer/teachers continue to remain at the forefront of technology since they are integrating their teaching activities with their regular employment in the ever-changing world of hi-tech.

Before being let loose in the classroom, the engineers participating in the M&M program undergo teacher training in physics, maths, computer programming and electronics at the Technion's Faculty of Education in Science and Technology.   In order to encourage the success of this important program, these newly-inducted teachers are subsequently paid a Ministry of Education salary according to their years of engineering experience, rather than their teaching experience.  This pilot project is in line with Israel's national program to double the number of hi-tech professionals in the country by 2025.