Queen Rania inaugurates Women Vocational Training Center in Abu Nsair and stresses the need to link vocational training with market demand

May 12, 2003

(Office of Her Majesty – Press Department – Amman) - In line with national efforts to empower youth and equip them with the necessary skills needed for the developing job market and to reduce unemployment, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah on Sunday inaugurated the Women Vocational Training Center in Abu Nsair and toured its facilities.

As part of her efforts in supporting initiatives that aim to improve the livelihood of Jordanians from various sectors of society and in line with His Majesty King Abdullah II’s vision under the motto Jordan First, Queen Rania stressed the importance of linking training skills with market demand emphasizing the need to create a skilled workforce that would help in boosting and restructuring Jordan’s economy.

The Center is the 12th women vocational training center in Jordan. It aims at highlighting the importance of vocational training for Jordanian women and raises awareness on the important role women play in the overall development process.

The Center offers programs in computer maintenance, website designs, computer skills, sewing, cookery, jewelry design, and secretarial work. It also offers a daycare service for women with children.

The Center absorbs 500 women trainees a year, where training is carried out through cooperation agreements between the Vocational Training Unit at the Ministry of Labor and the private sector, equipping graduates with the skills needed to join the workforce or to establish their own income generating projects.

During the visit, the Minister of Labor explained that the Ministry is undertaking a grave initiative in implementing projects under the umbrella of Human Resources Development. Currently, there are 14 new centers under construction making the total number of centers supervised by the Ministry of Labor 49 serving both women and men with a total cost of JD 17.6 million.

Under the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, the Ministry is embarking on a pioneer national training project to train 10,000 men and 2000 women within the framework of financial incentives and in cooperation with the Jordanian Armed Forces to feed highly skilled personnel into the local and regional markets.

The Minister also referred to a broader future plan of establishing a Vocational Training University in cooperation with the German Government to bridge the gap between education and vocational training and to provide the local, regional, and international markets with a highly skilled workforce.