ILO and the Welfare Association sign a partnership agreement to promote entrepreneurship education in the oPt.

The Welfare Association (WA) signed, on Thursday July 12^th, a partnership agreement with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in its headquarter in Ramallah, in the aim to support the nationalization  of the ILO entrepreneurship education package ‘’ Know About Business ‘’ in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The agreement was signed by the Director General of WA in Palestine, Dr. Tafida Al Jarbawi, and by the ILO country representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Mr. Mounir Kleibo. The event was attended by officials from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Labour.

Dr. Al Jarbawi pointed out the importance of youth employment and youth education both representing priority areas of intervention for the WA. A total of USD 17 million was allocated to implement youth employment projects and to support young entrepreneurs in the establishment of their small businesses and thus create job opportunities. The latter contributed to the creation of hundreds of job opportunities for new graduates coming from vocational training and academic backgrounds; in addition, tens of small enterprises were established and have helped entrepreneurs generate income to support their families in different regions.

Dr. Al Jarbawi confirmed the importance of the ILO  initiative to nationalize the "Know About Business" Programme  in the occupied Palestinian territory and the extent of its contribution to support vocational education, develop the entrepreneurial skills of graduates, and strengthen the link between the education system and the labour market.

Mr. Mounir Kleibo thanked the WA for its financial contribution to the KAB project and reiterated ILO’s strong commitment to promote decent and productive work in Palestine while focusing on women and youth.

A press release by the Al Ayyam newspaper can be accessed on the following link: http://www.al-ayyam.com/article.aspx?did=195334&date

 

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.

As part of the Nationalization of KAB in Palestine, a Training of Facilitators workshop was held in Ramallah from 4-15 September 2011 by the Ministry of Labour and under the supervision of ILO. The TOF was facilitated by five potential NKFs who assisted each other in the delivery as part of their assessment for their successful certification as National Key Facilitators under the monitoring of Mr. Samih Jaber, ILO KAB Regional Facilitator.

Attached are photos from the workshop.

In the first picture:

First Row: Samih Jaber, ILO KAB Regional Facilitator and Rania Bikhazi SME Specialist

Second Row: the 5 potential NKFs- Shehdeh Al Zarou, Khawla Zughaiar Natsheh, Nidal Fahmi Ayesh, Shaheer Rasheed Yacoub, Abdallah Al Selawi.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen, have introduced or are in the process of introducing the Know About Business (KAB) entrepreneurship education at various educational levels such as secondary, post-secondary, vocational and technical schools and higher education

The objective of this international conference on entrepreneurship education was to bring together politicians, researchers, educators, practitioners and students mainly from Arabian countries to discuss and share knowledge and experiences with a view to develop better policies and guidelines for the promotion of self-employment and youth entrepreneurship through entrepreneurship education. 190 participants from 28 countries shared their experience and knowledge about entrepreneurship education. The present document synthesizes the main discussions and recommendations made during the conference.

This is the manual for registered users, those not affiliated with the ILO or the KAB package but are part of our community. It is a resource which describes how to upload items, photos, and overall use the site. Should you have any difficulties commiting any of these actions, please feel free to contact usat info@knowaboutbusiness.org or on the community by writing me, the Community Helper!

For the month of October 2010 the Magazine "Entrepreneur" issued in Saudia Arabia featured two articles related to KAB:

1. An interview with Ms. Rania Bikhazi, Enterprise Development specialist at the International Labour Organization Regional Office for Arab States, on self-employment, entrepreneurship and the implementation of KAB in the Arab Region.

2. The implementation of KAB in Palestine

Kindly find attached both articles, in Arabic, in addition to the cover page of the magazine on which Ms. Rania Bikhazi is featured.