Skip to main content

Al-Shabab Awalan: Najah Program

Al-Shabab Awalan ("Youth First") is a new MEYI online series that spotlights leading civil society efforts working on youth development in the Middle East. Organizations are nominated based on their commitment to youth and their innovative approaches.

The first featured initiative in the Al-Shabab Awalan series is Najah, a Save the Children program which focuses on enhancing employability among Jordanian youth. The Series showcases various multimedia, including podcasts of an interview with the team and “Point of View” articles by youth beneficiaries.

Please use the navigation to the right to read and listen to the material.

 

The Najah program, supported by the United States Agency for International Development and Save the Children, aims to increase the employability of Jordanian youth (ages 18-24) through learning by doing, career counseling, workforce placement and experience development, providing support to stay employed, and encouraging community mobilization designed to enhance parental support for youth employment and entrepreneurship.


Najah Objectives

  • To build youth life and works skills and promote positive attitudes towards work through non-formal education approaches based on learning-by-doing.
  • To link youth to available job opportunities, entrepreneurship and demand-driven skill training.
  • To foster the emergence of a 'culture of hope' that supports youth to actively contribute to their own development and that of their community and economy.

     

    MEYI team visiting with the Jordanian Najah program in spring 2008.
 
I"In my community, they used to see me as a young girl; weak, powerless and helpless...No one could see that I can take the initiative, make a choice or take a decision...No one believed that I could make a difference in this community...Today, however, I am perceived differently! Both they and I know that I can plan my future and my life..." - Najah youth Hanan
 

 

 

 Najah Activities

  • Develop, test and deliver a modular non-formal education curriculum that builds youth soft skills and promotes positive attitudes towards a modernizing workplace through learning-by-doing approaches.
  • Develop and make widely available a culturally appropriate employment information package that helps young people to identify their interests and skills, learn about market trends, and succeed in the labor market.
  • Support youth to put their skills and knowledge into action through small scale, innovative community enterprise projects where youth are mentored by business leaders.
  • Launch mass media and community-based campaigns that encourage parents and community leaders to support youth to take up available jobs or start their own businesses.

"The program taught me how to deal and communicate with others in a more positive and productive manner, not only in a work environment, but also at home and within my circle of friends. Communication skills, presentation skills, challenges and values at the workplace, recognizing the community and appreciating its components, tradition and culture, those were the skills that we learned to understand and respect in Najah." - Najah youth Ihsan


Najah Impact

  • Increasing the employability skills of 300 young women and men from the North, Center, and South of Jordan.
  • Linking at least 60% of these to jobs, entrepreneurship opportunities, or further training.
  • Reaching tens of thousands of parents, community leaders, and business leaders with behavior change communication and activities.

Launched in October 2005 under the patronage of Their Majesties King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, Najah works with key national partners to contribute to the fulfillment of important goals outlined in the national youth strategy. In implementing this highly innovative program in the north, center, and south of the Kingdom, Save the Children is bringing business leaders and unemployed youth together to increase youth take-up of existing job opportunities.

"Najah boosted my self-confidence and gave me the skills I needed in addition to the knowledge I required. I can now decide and determine my goals in life. My channels of communication with my parents are clearer than ever. I proved to myself that the so called "culture of shame" is not part of our community, and the community restrictions were no more than challenges that could be overcome if we put out mind to it." - Najah youth Rabi'ah