Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (ILO News) The ILO held a Training of Facilitators on its Know About Business (KAB) entrepreneurship education programme, in further efforts to build the capacity of teachers from technical and vocational training centres, as well as secondary and higher education institutions in the delivery of entrepreneurship education in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The training, which took place in Erbil between July 31 and August 12, brought together sixteen teachers. It is the second KAB Training of Facilitators to be held by the ILO in recent months. The training workshops were also attended by H.E. Kwestan Mohamad Adbulla, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs; Ms. Zakia Sayed Salih, Deputy Minister, and Dr. Arif Hito, Director General of Labour and Social Insurance.

The training programme is being delivered under the framework of ILO’s “Improved Business Development Services and Entrepreneurship Education targeting MSMEs and youth for decent work creation in KRI” project, which is financially supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). It is being implemented in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) of the Regional Kurdistan Government, ILO’s key partner in the embedment of entrepreneurship curriculum into education and training. On the subject, H.E. Kwestan Mohamad Adbulla, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, has emphasized her cabinet’s commitment to work closely with the ILO and other organizations in supporting young Kurdish women and men to launch entrepreneurships as a means to tackle youth unemployment.

Up to date, the ILO has built the capacity of at least 36 teachers from 7 TVET centres across Kurdistan, namely from Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Duhok, Soran, Zakho, Halabja and Garmian.

Know About Business is an entrepreneurship education programme developed by the ILO to teach entrepreneurship in technical and vocational centres, as well as in secondary and higher education institutions. The objective is to create positive attitudes in young women and men towards enterprise as a career option and facilitate the school-work transition as a result of a better understanding of the way enterprises operate.

“Young women and men in particular face great difficulties to find a gainful and decent employment, a situation that is evidenced by the fact that almost half of youth have been looking for a job for more than a year. This situation becomes quite demotivating for youth who are confronted with the lack of job opportunities after graduating” said Daniela Martinez, Enterprise Development Officer for ILO Iraq. “Besides this, the more educated youth still show a strong preference for public sector employment and lack knowledge of the potential benefits of engaging in entreprepreneurship. Our objective is thus to offer youth higher incentives to go into business through the promotion of an entrepreneurship culture and more information on how to open a business”.

Under the project, the ILO and GIZ also seek to leverage previous efforts in implementing KAB which has been adopted by MoLSA since 2008. From the group of already-certified teachers, the project hosted a KAB Refresher Training of Facilitators from 5-8 April 2021 targeting 23 KAB facilitators. Dr. Arif Hito opened the workshop, which aimed at refreshing participant’s knowledge and skills, and introducing new KAB modules (v. 2020). With the aim to reinforce the programme’s sustainability and long-term implementation, the project also targeted 10 national supervisors to participate in the KAB Training of Supervisors from 22-24 May 2021. The workshop focused on enhancing MoLSA’s decision-makers to implement, manage, and monitor the KAB programme in their role of National Supervisors.