Jordan

LOCAL SKILLS MATTER Jordan

A study of good practice in the application of territorial governance tools to VET in Jordan, undertaken as part of the Entrepreneurial Communities initiative.

Short description:

In 2013, as part of its work on multilevel VET governance, the ETF launched its Entrepreneurial Communities initiative to identify and acknowledge local partnerships that foster skills, entrepreneurship and job creation. The goal was to explore and learn from examples in partner countries, in order to understand how these partnerships are formed, the impact they can have on communities and how they can inform VET policy.

In Amman there is no VET offer in the ICT sector. All such programmes are taught at universities, which produce graduates with skills that do not meet market demand. The cost of training is borne by start-ups, which weakens their competitiveness vis-à-vis the multinationals with whom they compete to retain talent.

This report describes an Entrepreneurial Community in Amman based on a partnership involving two businesses, MENA Apps and Oasis500, as well as Int@j, a private non-profit organisation that promotes the Jordanian software and IT services industry. The partnership accelerates the founding of start-ups and the activities of entrepreneurs; it connects start-up businesses to mentors and other players in the ecosystem and opens doors for start-ups, helping them to grow locally and internationally. The programme also provides training and guidance on good governance and company management. One of the roles of the entrepreneurial community is to reduce the cost of talent acquisition for ICT start-ups by providing input into policy intended to influence courses and curricula and ensure the availability of the skills needed to fuel the growth of community members’ businesses. The ambition is to further develop partnerships between the ICT industry and providers of education and training services, with a view to establishing clear and systemic coordination and planning in the provision of ICT education and training, based on modern mechanisms for multilevel territorial governance.

You may read the document below and see the video here.