With ~45% of its population under the age of 25 and one of the highest rates of youth unemployment globally, the skilling and reskilling of the youth in the Middle East is an imperative in the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. For the longest time, the choice for many young people has been between leaving the region, accepting lower-quality work, or remaining at home. The lack of access to quality learning and skilling greatly threatens the immediate and future wellbeing of the region.

Edraak, founded by a Global Shaper in 2014, provides quality learning opportunities to more than 3 Million learners across the MENA region, in Arabic, for free. An initiative under the Queen Rania Foundation, Edraak has a growing portfolio of more than 155 courses across a variety of topics, developed and delivered by experts. In September 2019, Crescent Petroleum, a longtime partner of the WEF, funded a new project at Edraak to develop a work-readiness Specialization serving the youth of the region. Within the first month of its launch, the Edraak Career Readiness Track reached more than 23,000 learners across the MENA region.

The Amman Hub designed a project that leverages Edraak’s Career Readiness Track to equip youth with skills that enable them to join the workforce and prepares them as life-long learners who are resilient and adaptive to the changing needs of the job market. The project aims to engage youth between the ages of 20-25 who are eager to learn and are seeking employment opportunities regardless of their educational backgrounds or qualifications.  

Key to the success of the Edraak Career Readiness Track is mobilizing the content offline and creating learning communities around it. According to the US Department of Education meta-analysis of 50 studies, students who learn online performed, on average, better than those learning the same material in a traditional classroom. More importantly, the analysis showed that combining online and face-to-face learning, in what is called blended learning, was even more effective than face-to-face or online learning separately. One of the most effective methods of blended learning are Flipped Classrooms, where classroom time is used for more effective and practical learning rather than lecturing; the classroom becomes a space to explore learning material more deeply. 

To that end, the Amman Hub designed a modular project that enables MENA Hubs to use the Track and run a parallel program that applies blended learning and trains youth on essential employability skills. The value of the collaboration lies in the resourceful networks the Hubs have within their local communities to source and deliver effective training and guidance. These networks are key to increasing the outreach of the Track and, more importantly, building a blended learning experience around it.

The project runs in 2 parallel schemes: 

1. 
   

   Online mass campaign to raise awareness about Edraak Career Readiness Track reaching 500,000 youth across MENA, coupled with 3 offline meet-ups with learners/Hub 

   
   


2. 
   

   Offline training program to 500 selected youth (minimum 50/Hub), either recruited by a general or targeted campaign. The offline training program will complement the Edraak Track through blended learning and 6-month mentorship by Shapers and experts.