Young people from East Jerusalem acquire quality professional skills aimed at employability by creating sustainable entrepreneurship

East Jerusalem is one of the areas with the least development opportunities for the Palestinian population. It presents the rate with the lowest unemployment in the West Bank (6.5%) and, however, also the one with the lowest labor participation (35.9%).

In this context, vocational technical education and training (TVET) is key to social and economic development.

Thus, this project is presented as a pilot experience to test how TVET oriented towards urban agriculture can reduce the vulnerability of excluded social groups and improve employability and job creation.

This first experience will lay the necessary foundation to scale up the intervention with:

• The creation of new training curricula for TVET centers that incorporate skills demanded by the labor market;
• The training of expert trainers;
• The certification of the first class of qualified professionals in East Jerusalem.

Young people will participate in the project – especially women – from the towns of Beit Hanina, the Old City, Silwan, Altour, Isawiya, Almukabir, Sur Baher, and Kafr Aqab, which have very low levels of education (approximately 38% of those over 18 years of age have not completed 12 years of schooling); they also suffer from gender stereotypes (which limit equal opportunities and relegate women to “feminized” sectors such as education and services) and other aspects such as those linked to movement restrictions.

Training in vocational training will favor their employability, and updating training curricula and raising awareness about the role of TVET will be vectors of empowerment and economic development.