Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Scholarship Program (IETSP)

As a result of the Syrian conflict, approximately 1.5 million Syrians fled to Jordan. The social and economic situation of most refugees in Jordan is precarious. For them there are only few legal job opportunities and options for vocational education. At the same lime, there is a high rate of youth unemployment in Jordan, which already was one of the country’s most pressing problems before the refugee crisis. The reason for the high rate of youth unemployment is among other things, is the limited number of the available jobs compared with the large number of yearly graduate students, and the weak capacity of vocational education in Jordan, which in many cases does not follow the needs of the companies.

Jordan has taken several actions to address the high unemployability rate among youth which by proactively promoting the entrepreneurial spirit and capacity among its youth, thus converting university graduates from job seekers to job creators. These initiatives have been consolidated by the government by re-structuring the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) by leveraging it to serve the entrepreneurial and digital economy echo system, thus the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MoDEE) was recently launch as a response of these fundamental changes. Furthermore, MoDEE has recently announced the Jordan’s national entrepreneurship policy, which provides a pathway for all Jordanians governmental institutes and private companies toward supporting entrepreneurship within its structure and ongoing activities. As a result of launching the policy, all Jordanian universities have taken major actions to fulfil the policy objectives, thus most of the Jordanian universities have stablished innovation and entrepreneurship centres that aim at empowering the students’ graduates and faculty members and equipping them with the needed skills and competencies to be a successful entrepreneur who can create new business ideas and contributes actively to the Jordanian’s industry and economy. The German Jordanian University as one of the major universities in Jordan has followed the Ministry recommendations and entrepreneurship policy and launched its first-of-its-kind Deanship of Innovation, Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship (DI-TECH), which has three main pillar services: Technology transfer and industrial links, innovation and entrepreneurship and employability. Therefore, given DI-TECH unique services, it will take a crucial part on this project by offering entrepreneurship training and incubation to potential Syrian refugees and underprivileged Jordanians, thus empowering them to launch their own businesses.

The IETSP main objective is to offer young under privileges Jordanians and Syrian refugees with the needed skills and competencies to launch their startup companies in different fields and specializations that are needed by the Jordanian industry. Especial focus will be given to community innovative projects that are meaningful to the community, placing community members as both the champs and as the arbiters of change. Communities offer the perfect container for innovation because talented people can make a dramatic change in the way members all collaboratively address public issues and make real difference. Community innovation is context specific, where solutions that have been proven effective in one community can, at best, serve as a source of inspiration for another community. These innovations, however, must be adapted and modified to reflect the unique strengths, challenges, and leadership of the community where they are being replicated. Examples of community innovative projects are projects related to urban farming, green applications/business, ecosystem to drive innovation and textile machinery, handcraft industry, etc.

Another important yet crucial theme that will be given high priority is the green economy and industry. Especially that the high influx of Syrian refugees which increased the pressure on scarce resources in the country such as water and energy. Already before the refugee crisis, Jordan had decided to invest in renewable energies and expand the use of solar systems. Therefore, entrepreneurial projects that contribute to the country’s green policy will be prioritized.  To achieve these objectives, IETSP will provide Syrians and Jordanians youth (who roughly will establish teams, with a training opportunity on innovation and entrepreneurship.  As a result of this training camp, distinguished teams will be competitively selected to be incubated and to receive seed fund, that will enable them to launch their startup companies.