Ramallah:

PFESP in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Labor, and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, organized a series of preparatory workshops. This is for launching a project to integrate and qualify graduates of training and rehabilitation centers. It is implemented by PFESP and financed by the Ministry of Social Development.

The workshops were organized in a number of northern governorates. They were attended by representatives of employment offices in the governorates, representatives of the Ministry of Social Development, and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce.

Participants in the workshops stressed the importance of developing graduates' performance and qualifying them for the labor market. This is through advanced training programs and projects and keeping pace with the development in the world.

In a speech to him, Munir Shalalda, Director of the Program Development Department of PFESP, stressed the importance of the project and its goals in enabling this category in the Palestinian labor market and providing them with training and practical experiences. This enables them to find job opportunities and reduce unemployment among them. Especially as it is the first project of its kind directed to graduates of Social centers.

Shalaldah said that the project targets graduates of social centers with a 16-20 age group. "PFESP" will train and qualify 100 graduates of social rehabilitation centers in private sector institutions, for a period of nine months.

He pointed out that these graduates will be distributed to the operators each in his region in cooperation with the Federation of Chambers of Commerce. It will provide "PFESP" with a list of operators in all the targeted areas of the project through the employment offices of the Ministry of Labor. It will later implement several meetings to sign training and rehabilitation contracts with the graduates and distribute them on the workplaces.

He said that starting to actually implement the project, that took place last week, would start early next month.