SUMMARY

Jordan’s population is characterised as relatively young with more that 70 per cent of its 6.2 million inhabitants estimated to be below the age of 30. General unemployment was estimated at 12.2 per cent in 2012, with youth unemployment reaching 29.3 per cent that year due to a number of challenges including lack of career guidance, absence of entrepreneurship education and lack of opportunities for fresh graduates. As such, there is an increased need to invest in the country’s youth in order to create decent work opportunities. Introducing youth to the world of entrepreneurship is one of the many facets that can facilitate their school-to-work transition and open alternative career doors for them.

To meet the demand, the ILO will contribute to fostering an entrepreneurial culture in Jordan by pilot testing its flagship entrepreneurship programme “Know About Business” (KAB) with young Jordanian women and men enrolled in vocational high schools and community colleges. This pilot phase will be implemented under the umbrella of a project run by the Business Development Center (BDC), a Jordanian non-profit organisation. This project is a continuation of ILO’s and BDC’s previous joint efforts to integrate entrepreneurship education at the National Company for Employment and Training.

Upon completion of the KAB pilot phase, Jordan’s Ministry of Education and Al Balka’a Applied University (representing the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research) will decide whether or not to integrate the KAB programme in the national educational curricula.

Objectives

KAB will be pilot tested as an entrepreneurship education curriculum for young Jordanian women and men enrolled in the select community colleges and vocational high schools to:

• Create awareness of enterprise and self-employment as a career option for trainees;
• develop positive attitudes towards enterprise and self-employment;
• provide knowledge and practice of the required attributes and challenges for starting and operating a successful and sustainable enterprise that provides a decent work environment for workers; and
• prepare trainees to work productively in small and medium enterprises.

Main Activities

• Conduct KAB awareness workshops targeting vocational high schools and community colleges;
• adapt and customise KAB training materials to the Jordanian socio-economic and cultural environment for the target group namely the students at the selected vocational high schools and the selected community colleges;
• select KAB coordinators, supervisors and teachers/professors according to the ILO’s KAB criteria and build their capacity to implement the programme;
• train facilitators on the content and the participatory training methodology of KAB;
• pilot test KAB in community colleges and vocational high schools in selected areas in the North, Centre and South of Jordan through regular monitoring visits by ILO, the BDC KAB Coordinator and selected KAB supervisors;
• conduct follow-up workshops for teachers and professors/instructors to share experiences and make recommendations on the adaptation and teaching of the material; and
• draw up a nationalisation plan based on the assessment of the KAB pilot phase.

Outcomes

• KAB pilot tested and successfully completed;
• KAB training capacity built in the selected vocational high schools and community colleges; and
• KAB implemented at the selected vocational high schools and community colleges.