Mark Israel
HEENRUUA

The PBLogic association

Community work

In 2017 I took the working methods I had developed at the HIT Projects Center and turned them into a nonprofit. The idea is simple: close the gap between what the economy demands of a skilled worker and what graduates can actually do — starting with the populations where that gap is widest.

Who we are

The association

PBLogic

Founded at the Holon Institute of Technology, 2017

The association for the advancement of technological knowledge and skills

My roleFounder and General Manager

Vision

The association believes in every person’s right to a life of meaning and substance — with an emphasis on individuality, academic education, choice, the realisation of rights and the fulfilment of personal potential.

The practical aim: rapid integration into the labour market and involvement in community and in Israeli society.

Across all our frameworks we work towards the right of a person with a disability to take part in society according to their ability, wishes and needs — supported by a professional team providing emotional, social and functional support as a means of personal empowerment.

The overarching goal

  • Establish a nonprofit that transfers the Projects Center’s working methods to other organisations in education.
  • Narrow the gap between the economy’s demand for skilled workers and the skill level of those organisations’ graduates.
  • Develop multinational activity based on international projects, alongside the work in Israel.

Project-Based Learning

The method

PBL is an educational approach built on challenging questions that engage participants in design, problem solving, decision making and investigation. The methods and processes were developed at the HIT Projects Center over roughly eight years — and drove growth of several hundred percent there in three years.

  • Work in small multidisciplinary groups — up to 5 participants per group.
  • Each group is led by a professional instructor, together with guidance from industry representatives.
  • A short theoretical part establishes a uniform foundation, and then — sustained work on a real project.
  • All projects run in collaboration with companies and organisations from industry; the output is a working prototype that solves a problem.
  • Guidance sessions are held face-to-face or in hybrid form, about two hours each.
  • Four critical success factors: a high calibre of instructors, transparent and well-defined success metrics, team cohesion, and persistence.

The skills the method develops

  • Self-directed learning
  • Cognitive flexibility
  • Teamwork
  • Working in a multidisciplinary environment
  • Critical thinking and problem solving
  • Time management and responsibility
  • Leadership and entrepreneurship
  • Self-awareness
  • Persistence and engagement
  • Handling real-world problems

Who it is for

Target audiences

The association serves pupils and students in Israeli educational institutions, with emphasis on populations where there is a national interest in closing gaps.

  • Students with disabilities
  • Ethiopian-Israeli community
  • Haredi community
  • Arab community
  • Druze
  • Circassians
  • Minority communities

The support envelope

  • Personal accompaniment for every participant — counselling, reinforcement and professional support.
  • Tailored academic reinforcement: individual tutoring and language support.
  • Improving study skills — teaching strategies and tools for effective learning.
  • Tailored career guidance and building collaborations with employers.
  • Continued support for graduates on their professional path after the programme ends.
  • Personalised solutions for the physical, social and emotional needs of special populations.

In the field

Volunteering with United Hatzalah

I volunteer as a medic and ambulance driver with United Hatzalah. It is where what I do day to day — systems, procedures, response times — takes on its most direct meaning.

  • Volunteer medic — responding to medical emergencies in the field.
  • Volunteer ambulance driver.
  • The volunteering produced the Medic Practice app: 340 questions across 33 topics, 55 voice anamnesis cases and 34 PHTLS field scenarios — built for the paramedic-course trainees and ambulance drivers of the Sha’ar HaNegev group, at no cost.
  • The tools I build at work and in volunteering feed each other: the same approach of specifying a real need, building quickly, and putting it in the hands of whoever needs it.

Partners

Organisations served

Organisations and institutions for which the association ran programmes or prepared detailed proposals.

  • Holon Institute of Technology (HIT)

    Where the method was born — the Projects & Industry Collaboration Center

  • Aluma

    A programme for special populations, including an extended project with JDC Israel

  • JDC Israel (the Joint)

    Partner in the extended project with Aluma

  • Sharansky Center

    A practicum and annual internship programme, including a face-to-face session schedule

  • Beit Bracha

    A practicum cohort and programme kickoff

  • Ariel College of Design and Technology

    A proposal for a PBL-based projects programme

  • Beit HaMoreh

    A projects framework within the programme

Some projects are covered by non-disclosure agreements signed by every project participant — so the details of those outputs are not shown here.

Happy to talk

Get in touch

Open to executive roles, academic collaborations, technology consulting and board positions.