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Vocational training fund reports 400% expansion in beneficiary base last year

By Mahmoud Al Abed - May 02,2015 - Last updated at May 02,2015

AMMAN – The Employment-Technical and Vocational Education and Training Fund (E-TVET Fund) expanded its base of beneficiaries by 396 per cent in 2014, compared to 2013, while the volume of funds extended to support vocational and technical training projects increased by 152 per cent, according to the fund’s director.

In a recent interview with The Jordan Times, E-TVET Fund Director General Ghassan Abu Yaghi said around 36,000 students benefited from the funding extended to vocational training institutions, including the Vocational Training Corporation (VTC), to which the fund annually allocates JD3.5 million.

The total funding amounted to JD58 million last year, he added, noting that it goes to eligible applicants that propose feasible vocational and technical training plans involving training and, upon graduation, recruiting young Jordanians, both male and female.

Established in 2008, the E-TVET Fund functions under the Employment-Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council, whose law stipulates that the fund “aims at supporting employment and technical and vocational education and training activities and developing various training processes in both public and private sectors”. 

The fund’s financial resources come from 1 per cent of the net profit of companies licensed to operate anywhere in the Kingdom, excluding joint liability and limited partnership firms, in addition to government contributions and any gifts, donations or financial aid, including non-Jordanian funds, provided that the Cabinet approves the foreign funding, which it examines on case-by-case basis, according to the council law.

Elaborating, the director said that as of 2010, the fund started to receive a cut from the work permit fees paid by guest labourers. 

The money extended by the E-TVET Fund covers training costs, stipends and uniforms for students, who are usually secured jobs after finishing training, simply because the projects are selected through a mechanism that involves employers, who identify their needs of skilled labour, according to Abu Yaghi, a holder of a PhD in management who came from the private sector. 

He noted that the retention rate is high. For example, projects proposed by the Jordan Engineers Association and the Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association have reported that 65 per cent of the trainees are still in their jobs. The dropout margin, the official noted, is acceptable.

Building on its successes, the E-TVET Fund has a new target. In cooperation with the Civil Service Bureau, the agency seeks to attract 5,000 job seekers whose chances of government appointment are limited, due to low demand on their specialties. They will be encouraged to join vocational training programmes and benefit from the privileges offered.

The key criterion is that the candidate should be a resident of an underprivileged area in the governorates, in addition to humanitarian cases, Abu Yaghi explained.

Since many potential applicants are women, one idea is to encourage foreign investors in the Qualifying Industrial Zones to establish “satellite projects” in remote areas to hire residents, in return for more incentives. 

The satellite plants are bound to remove a social barrier, Abu Yaghi noted, because women and their families would not reject training and working in a facility in the neighbourhood, sparing them the inconvenience of travelling hundreds of kilometres sometimes to work in industrial estates in other governorates.

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