An evaluation of the KAB project Phase I in Palestine was done by Mr. Chris Weinmann accompanied by Ms. Rania Bikhazi, Enterprise Development Specialist.

The evaluation started in Amman where a meeting was held with the KAB Regional Key Facilitator, Mr. Samih Jaber, who was the lead expert working on the KAB project. Mr. Jaber gave a detailed presentation of the activities he conducted under the project namely the TOFs, refresher courses, and the NKF workshop. He also clarified the specificities of the teachers’ certification process in Palestine which included attending the NKF workshop, a written test on the KAB content and the delivery of a full TOF under ILO monitoring.

Over 3 days, Mr. Weinmann and Ms. Bikhazi held meetings with the MoL and the MoEHE. They met with the Minister of Labour who spoke highly of the KAB programme as a means to bridge the gap between vocational education and the labour market needs. Follow-up meetings were held with the National KAB Coordinator Mr. Abdullah Al Silawi and the 5 recently certified KAB National Key Facilitators (NKFs).

The NKFs highlighted the need to review the pre and post tests of the KAB programme, simplify it and train the teachers on how to analyze the results. They also focused on the need to provide KAB teachers with incentives in order to motivate them and keep up their enthusiasm.

A meeting was held with the Director General of Technical Education at the MoEHE who also expressed the Ministry’s full support of the programme which will be rolled out nationally starting January 2011. He also stressed on the need to involve the administration and principals of schools and colleges to ensure full understanding of the programme and the provision of the needed support to the teachers.

A long meeting was held with the National KAB Coordinator under the MoEHE and 5 out of the 8 potential NKFs. The latter raised a number of issues namely:

• · Who can assess the business plans submitted by students?
• · Analysis of the pre and post questionnaires
• · Who will assess the KAB impact once the MoEHE will nationalize?
• · Incentives for teachers and NKFs who will train other teachers.

A number of success stories were presented to the evaluators such as newly opened coffee shops, furniture shops and car mechanics especially in the Hebron area.

Mr. Weinmann also held additional meetings with UNDP, DFID to get to know the portfolio of private sector and SME development initiatives in Palestine along with a meeting with the previous KAB coordinator.