DEAD SEA -- Representatives of institutions tasked with the implementation of the National Employment Strategy (NES) explored means to translate the initiative into action.
During a three-day workshop, the representatives launched a roadmap to unite all efforts concerned with the 2011-2020 NES, which was launched in December last year and seeks to develop and implement short-, medium- and long-term policies and programmes to combat unemployment.
Participants at the workshop, initiated by Labour Minister Nidal Katamine, presented challenges facing the recruitment of Jordanians and how to address the unemployment rate amidst regional challenges, especially the influx of more than half-a-million Syrian refugees into the Kingdom.
"Our goal is to find employment for local job seekers. To meet than goal, we need to identify the obstacles and work with all stakeholders to find solutions that can be implemented over the next few years," Katamine said at a press conference Saturday held on the sidelines of the workshop.
He stressed that implementing the strategy is more important than introducing ideas on paper, adding that the stakeholders, which include the education and private sectors, and the donor community, will shoulder efforts to ensure no overlap, and unify their goals.
"We have the human resources and the experience, and we are cooperating with USAID and the EU in order to achieve constructive results," Katamine said.
"More than 100,000 individuals enter the labour market every year. This figure is challenging; however, we are optimistic that we will be able to meet their needs."He noted that the recently launched one-stop-shop falls within the strategy's scope, and the ministry will implement this initiative in remote areas.
Omar Razzaz, chairman of the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) and head of the team that prepared the NES, said the strategy includes a comprehensive analysis of the local labour market and the challenges facing job creation, and an implementation plan will be the responsibility of the public and the private sectors.
"The short-term plan seeks to absorb unemployed Jordanians through expanding employment projects in cooperation with the private sector and replacing guest workers with Jordanians," Razzaz noted.
"Vocational training and paid training in cooperation with private employers are among the measures to be implemented, in addition to giving incentives to employers who recruit fresh trainees," he added.
Also on the sidelines of the discussions, two memoranda of understanding were signed to boost efforts to implement the strategy. The first memo was signed between the ministry, KAFD, and the Employment, Technical and Vocational Education Training Fund (E-TVET), under which KAFD will train the ministry's staff to run and implement the strategy in addition to assessing the work progress, while the E-TVET will fund the process.
The Labour Ministry and the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) signed the second memo.
CSS Director Musa Shteiwi said the centre will provide the ministry with technical support throughout the implementation of the strategy by assigning experts and consultants to suggest amendments to labour policies that need to be revisited due to regional developments.
© Jordan Times 2013
