Articles - BIP Iraq 2021

Twenty-five Vocational Education schools are participating in the Student Enterprise Program in Iraq Second Season 2021-2022 with Alola Organization. These High Schools are from (10) Baghdad, (4) Wassit, (3) Karbala, (4) Dywaniah and (4) Najaf. The Student Enterprise Program targets teachers and students I five districts. Building ability and entrepreneurship skills are the goals being transferred to the schools. Training Leaders and Student Enterprisers was the goal of all courses.

The administration from Alola Org and more than eight BIP certified, and Mentor trainers joined the courses with the main International BIP Training Expert Dr. Hussein Tahir in all the cities.

The Manager of Alola Org held the opening words for first training in Baghdad. Dr. Tahir started training in Baghdad with thirty teachers and school managers from (10) Vocational Schools. The training course was held 29/11-1/12 2021 at the Baghdad Vocational Education Training, Production, and Investment Centre of the Vocational Education Directorate. The assistant trainers were Aola Hussein, Meisem Rahim and Shams Salim.

The second training was in Dywaniah and held at the Agriculture Vocational Schoolin Dywaniah City in period 6-8 December 2021. Training participants were (24) Vocational Education teachers and school managers, (12) candidates from Dywaniah and (12) from Alnajaf District. Each of these groups will build own their program, with the main targets being teachers and students. The assistant trainers were Adnan Kadhom (Najaf) and Adnan Mohsin (Dywaniah).

At the end of the training on the final day, all the participants took a tour to the Agriculture School and had some very nice experiences amongst green fields, rivers, kindly animals, vegetables plots, and trees.

In Wassit, the training had was held at the Scientific Care Center in Alkut-Wassit from the 12-13 December 2021. Training participants were (12) Vocational Education teachers and school managers. These group will build own their program, with the main targets being teachers and students. The assistant trainers were Adnan Satar Taha and Adil Salman.

In Karbala, the training was held at the Labor Directorate in from 14th-15th December 2021. The Training’s participants were (9) Vocational Education teachers and school managers from Karbala. These teachers are very eager and will do their very best. The assistant trainers were Fadil Aljabiri, Hana Noori and Bushra Altaii.

On Monday November 29th more than fifty participants gathered in Student Enterprises Conference second season. Eng. Layla Mahdi from the Alola Org. held the opening address. She presented the program directly to the attendees and informed about positive work done at the Vocational School in the previous year. She told about the positive feedback from program participants, both teachers and students. She also let it be known “We are here for you. Who are you? You are teachers, you are students. Together we are making school day much better. We are doing the best with BIP tools. Student Enterprises is the program we can use. We will qualify the teachers to be Training Leaders and will transfer the Business Plan Development to students so you can make your own new workplaces.

After Mrs. Mahdi made her speech, she asked Mr. Sadi Ali to lead on. He told that the Alola Org. is doing very good job, and they will align the Vocational Schools in aim with students wishes. He went on to say “We got very good signals from last implementation, and we can see at Alola Org. with support of Norwegian Business Innovation program tools will make our school more creative.”

The Manager of Training Center and coordinator of the program, Eng. Thaer Mizhir followed Mr. Said Ali and told the audience “The Iraqi Vocational Schools are target for all international organizations with big long-term projects, and the Alola Org. (BIP) project has very good material which should be in hands of our students.” He went on to talk about the importance of following up the system and organizing of student’s enterprises products Fair. These activities in our schools create a very good environment and give our students a better future.

Then Dr. Hussein Tahir, the BIP Training Expert, took the word and showed the important value of the Students Enterprises. He talked about the main goals of the program which will continue until 2023. He said “In 2020 all the countries in the world were affected by the Corona-19 Pandemic, but the Students Enterprises Program in Iraq were nonetheless implemented with good results.”

After the presentations the attendees were invited to ask questions and the main one that came up was “How can we make this training one of main activities for all students in the Vocational Schools?” In response the Manager of the Educational Supervision Dept. and the Manager of Educational Subject Dept. agreed to arrange an event to discuss this matter to ensure a better future.

PAO, Alola and the Vocational Education Directorate (VED) attended a meeting in Erbil and discussed the implementation of the SE program for the second year with new schools in new districts. The Student Enterprises Program will continue all over Iraq by Alola Organization and PAO Organization in cooperation with The Education ministry in Iraq and KRG. The Student Enterprises Program in Iraq is for students in Vocational Schools supervised by Norwegian Business Innovation Programs and supported by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

In the first year of the program in 2020-2021 six districts participated. They were Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah administered by PAO, and Baghdad, Wasit and Karbala administered by ALOLA. 60 teachers were qualified as Training Leaders and more than 600 students were engaged in the program.

This school year 2021-2022 will include new districts for both organizations. PAO will be in Mosul and Kirkuk, and Alola will include Najaf and Dywhania. All in all, an additional of 25 schools will join the program. This will involve more than 1,000 students and 100 teachers.

Meetings with the Vocational Education Directorate have started, and it has been agreed to involve more Vocational Schools from more cities. General Manager Sadi Ali Hameed at the Directorate has had extended meetings concerning the details and processes to implement the program. However, the Corona-virus pandemic is affecting the school system hard. Nevertheless, he still means this program is especially important to help alleviate the current job situation in Iraq.

PAO, ALOLA and The Vocational Education Planning Department have started coordinating in order that the program can start as soon as possible in October. The Manager of the Training Center-VED, Eng. Thaer Mizher, has initiated contact with the personnel and schools from districts to be involved.

The first training for the first group of the teachers (Training Leaders) to start new phase of the Student Enterprise Program will start in November.

On Sunday 11.07.2021 at 11:00 o’clock in Baghdad, the Manager of Alola Organization Layla Mahdi and her staff members Aola Hussein and Shams Salim meet Dr. Youssra K. Mohsin the General Director of Women Empowerment in the Iraqi Government.

The main goal of the meeting is supporting the Women Empowerment Program with Alola Org. experience in starting of businesses in fields such as Incubator Centers and Women Entrepreneurship activity. The Deputy Manager of Alola Mrs. Aola Hussein give a good overview about how Alola started five years ago. Mrs. Alola explained Alola’s strategy through Women Entrepreneurship and Incubator Centers Programs, certified trainers, courses, and their impact. This work has been done in cooperation with many ministries and institutes. The Labor Ministry and Education Ministry are their partners now.

Dr. Yossra K Mohsin from the Women Empowerment Directorate talked about how the World Bank has the Mashriq Initiative with seven priorities. It should have been implemented in 2019, but because of the economic situation it was not possible to do more than 10%. In Lebanon and Jordan, the rate of achievement is much higher.

Some of the main program topics are gender equality, financial Inclusion Courses, and Business Incubator. At the end of the meeting both sides agreed to have a good cooperation and Alola Organization will support Women Entrepreneurship with training, materials, certified trainers, and tools. That will make Alola Org. become part of WB network.

The Alola Organization, the main partner of Business Innovation Programs (BIP), in cooperation with the Ministry of Education in Iraq – Vocational Education Directorate, and within the framework of activities of the Student Enterprise (SE) project, five special Fairs were held to present 39 business ideas prepared by Vocational high school students in Baghdad, Wassit and Karbala. Many personnel from the Education department attended the fairs. As well as key personnel, teachers, parents, students, and others. In agreement with the Vocational Education Directorate, it was decided to organize a Business Fair for each school because of Coronavirus Pandemic.

The first Fair was held on 3rd.June 2021 in Kut - Wassit Provinse, to showcase (6) student projects in Vocational High School of Alaqeela Zaynb for girls.

The second Fair was held on 6th. June 2021 in the Alsuwere to present (11) project ideas for (50) students. Two Vocational High School participated in this Business Fair, the are Alsuwere vocational high school for boys and girls and the Alsalam Economic School for Girls.

The 3rd Fair was held on 13th. June 2021 in Baghdad to present project ideas for the Alameel Vocational high school for boys. (10) Projects with (12) students participated in this Fair, the manager of the Vocational School Directorate of the province attended the fair, as did the Iraqi Parliament Member also.

The 4th Fair was held on 15th.June 2021 in Karbala to present project ideas for the Alhadhara Vocational high school for girls. (6) Projects with (26) students participated in this Fair. The Deputy General Manager of the Education Directorate of the province attended the fair as well as many others from various offices.

The 5th Fair was held on 17th. June 2021 in Baghdad to present project ideas for the Almostaqbal Vocational high school for girls. (6) Projects with (31) students participated in this Fair.

More than 300 students, teachers, Ministry of education representatives, economists, representatives of companies, organizations and others participated.

To evaluate the projects participating in all Fairs, special committees were formed consisting of economists, education representatives and all BIP trainers to evaluate the ideas of the projects that participated in the Fairs, where five committees were formed for each of the five events in all fairs. At the end of every ceremony, the winning projects were selected, where the awards were distributed to them during the celebrating of the attendees. Alola Org. Leader Layla Mahdi gave thanks to all School Managers and Training Leaders and all participating students. Of (141) students participating at the Business Fairs, (121) were girls. The SE program in school season 2020-2021 is now ended and we shall prepare for the next one in 2021-2022.

With the support of Business Innovation Programs (BIP) and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education in the Kurdistan Region Government and within the activities of SE project, PAO held two special Fairs to present 53 business ideas prepared by high school students in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Dohuk provinces. The first Fair was held on May 25, 2021 in Sulaymaniyah province to showcase 26 student projects in high schools of Sulaymaniyah, Halabja, and Kifri districts. The second Fair was held on May 31, 2021 in the garden of the Sipan Hotel in Erbil to present 27 project ideas for the high schools of Erbil, Dohuk and Zakho provinces.

15 vocational High schools participated in these Fairs in the three provinces mentioned, and more than 300 students, teachers, Ministry of education representatives, economists, representatives of companies, organizations and others participated. .

The Fairs opened with a welcome speech from The President of the Public Aid Organization (PAO) Mr. Hogr Chato who spoke about the importance of such projects in defining and spreading the environment of small enterprises among students in particular and young people in general in order to achieve self-economic sufficiency and contribute to the economic development of society. Representatives of the Ministry of Education also had a speech in the opening on the importance of the project, where Mr. Dilshad Omar, Director of Education of Sulaymaniyah, spoke about the importance of the project in helping young people to rely on themselves in the establishment of their own project, while at the Erbil Fair, Mr. (Ahmed Smail Rahman) Director General of Vocational Education gave a speech on this occasion in which he said that he is very happy with this project, especially that the regional government has plans to introduce such curricula In preparatory study in the Kurdistan region. In the opening, both faculty representatives and students spoke about their experience in preparing for the occasion.

In order to evaluate the projects participating in the Fairs, special committees were formed consisting of economists, education representatives and PAO trainers to evaluate the ideas of the projects that participated in the Fairs, where four committees were formed for each of the two events in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. At the end of the ceremony, the winning projects were selected in both events, where the awards were distributed to them in the midst of the celebrating of the attendees.

The Alola Organization is one of BIP partners in Iraq which has authorization to use BIP material in Iraq to encourage entrepreneurship among youths and women. Since 2015 the local NGO Alola Org. has worked hard with BIP training programs and got exceptionally good results in Women Entrepreneurship and Students Enterprises.

Because of Covid19 Alola has started Online Training through Online Fcc, Zoom, Google Meet and WhatsApp programs.

At the start of 2021, the Alola Org. has started new move forward through the use of Online Training and the BIP tools have now made their way into many universities.

The Alolas online training scheme has reached 4 Universities with their BIP certified trainers. The universities are Almustansrieh, Alkufa, Wassit and Alfurat Alawsat with 400 participants. We will continue to expand into more universities, because the BIP materials are very important for students before they graduate.

On 10th February Training Expert Hussein Tahir held a speech in the Almustansryah University and talked about next move for Student Enterprises for students in universities.

Faculty of Engineering – Wassit University in cooperation with Alola Org. have start BPD training for 100 students in the period 22 -26 May 2021. The main is trainer Mohaned Salah, who with five certified trainers and follow up team ensured implementation of the BPD Training went very well.

lmustansrya University - Faculty of Education in cooperation with Alola Org. have start BPD training for for 100 students in the period 25 -28 March 2021. The main trainer is Bushra Abdulwahab, who with five certified trainers and follow up team ensured implementation of the BPD Training went very well. Additional activities were undertaken in the Education Faculty.

Almustansrya University - Faculty of Education in cooperation with Alola Org. have start BPD training for 24 teachers in the period 11 -15 March 2021. The main trainer Hussein Tahir, who with five certified trainers and follow up team ensured successful implement the BPD Training. The participants have evaluated the training as being “excellent”.

Alfurat Alawsat University in cooperation with Alola Org. have start BPD training for 100 students and 2 Teachers in the period 20 -26 April 2021. The main trainer Hussein Tahir, who with five certified trainers and follow up team ensured implementation of the BPD Training went very well.

The Minister Counsellor Mr. Roar Haugsdal and First Secretary Mr. Ole Danstad from the Embassy of Norway in Iraq met Alola Org. Manager and General Manager of Vocational Training - Labor Ministry while the Training of Trainers course was going on Beit Shabab Baghdad – Alwazyria on Sunday 17th January.2021.

The Manager of Alola Org. Mrs. Layla Mahdi welcomed the guests and thanked them very much for their support for women and youth entrepreneurship in Iraq and mentioned how important these kind of trainings for women are.

Mr. Roar Haugsdal told all attendees “we and all our partners are happy in fostering entrepreneurship for women and youth and creating jobs in Iraq”. He also stated that the Norwegian Embassy in Iraq supports these projects giving these target groups good opportunities to realize their own business.

At the same time, The First Secretary Mr. Ole Danstad added “the good result of this program encourages us to keep this kind of activity going on, and we are here today to meet and give our partners good support and see the work in action too”.

Mr. Haugsdal asked the attendees about feedback from the training or any other matters they are concerned about. Many of the Training participants took the opportunity and exchanged opinions.

The General Manger of Vocational Training and Labor Mr. Raid Jabbar spoke confirming how important the BIP training in Iraq for loan seekers are, and how the cooperation with Alola Org. gives particularly good results. He went on to say “We have a great need for additional qualified BIP trainers for Incubator Centers in all Iraq cities, the establishment of Incubator Centers in all Iraq, and the means to realize projects started and a good following up system”.

At the end of this sunny day, the program for the delegation of the Norwegian Embassy presented the ToT certificates to the training participants.