Starting your own business can be daunting, especially if you are young and living in a place with high unemployment and limited opportunities. But that is exactly what secondary-school students in eight Middle Eastern countries are doing, with help from Junior Achievement, a U.S. youth business-training program. In partnership with Save the Children, Junior Achievement launched Injaz-Arabia in Jordan in 1999 to help train knowledgeable entrepreneurs. Since then, Injaz, meaning "achievement" in Arabic, has expanded to Lebanon, Egypt, the West Bank and Gaza, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Injaz offers a master class, hands-on courses in problem solving and leadership, and youth job fairs. It supervises a program that allows participants to "shadow" corporate mentors to gain first-hand knowledge of the work world. In December 2005, Injaz launched a "company course" in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) to expose students to the challenges of establishing and running a business. Designed in consultation with the ministry of education, the course is adapted to local circumstances and is taught in Arabic as well as English. "We are bringing the world to them," said Diala S. al-Alami, a manager for Motorola Dubai. "We want to capture young people at a critical time and inspire them by showing them that they have the ability to pursue a professional career," said Al-Alami, who teaches an Injaz course at al-Khaleej National School for Girls in Dubai. Students learn to work as a team, develop leadership skills and negotiate. They also improve their skills in math and other areas, said Sulaf al-Zubi, Injaz director in the U.A.E. Injaz students in the Middle East have set up a recycling project, opened a cinema in a rural village, and established a travel and tourism business, to name a few examples. Profits generated by students’ efforts will be donated to charity -- a lesson in corporate responsibility. Even if a student company does not survive, the students will have had their minds opened by experiences that will be useful later, Al-Alami said. "After finishing an Injaz course, many students begin reading business sections of newspapers and searching the Internet for additional sources of information," said al-Zubi. "They start to feel the need to know. Isn't that what education is all about?" |
