National Employment Programme created 20,445 job opportunities — Labour minister

AMMAN — The National Employment Programme “Tashgheel”, launched by the government in April, has created 20,445 job opportunities to date from the private sector in several fields in 290 different companies registered with the programme, according to Labour Minister Nayef Stetieh.

The minister said that the job opportunities include 315 different professions, and are distributed to 7,898 opportunities in the industrial sector, 4,533 in the accommodation and food services sector, 2,427 in the administrative services sector, 1,505 in the health sector, 1,473 in other services, 580 in the commercial sector alongside many other sectors.

A total of 12,523 of the available job opportunities require less than a high school degree, 5,417 opportunities require high school, 300 opportunities require vocational training, 522 opportunities require diploma graduates, while 1,683 opportunities are available for bachelor, master and doctorate graduates, according to the minister.

Stetieh indicated during a press conference on Sunday at the Ministry of Labour that “Tashgheel” aims to provide job opportunities for about 60,000 young Jordanian men and women, noting that the registration platform will open for young people to apply for job opportunities starting from Sunday and will allow them to access opportunities’ details and information starting from Wednesday, June 1.

“This programme is not a training programme, but purely an employment programme to provide job opportunities for young people on a permanent basis. The ministry will provide training only if required or needed, for the employees during the work period, provided that there is an employment contract,” Stetieh said.

He noted that the number of job opportunities so far is a “positive indicator” and a good start, encouraging young Jordanians to register for opportunities under the programme.

Stetieh added that the ministry will conduct tours in all governorates, starting Monday with various partners to clarify how to benefit from the programme to introduce available job opportunities and help them register their needs of workers in all sectors. 

It will also include teaching young Jordanians how to register for the existing opportunities.

According to the minister, the programme offers 35 per cent of the opportunities for women, in addition to 7 per cent to the beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund.

The minister said that many measures have been implemented since the launch of the programme, such as the training of all personnel of the Ministry of Labour working in the “Tashgheel” programme, which are 70 employees, as well as the training of 192 liaison officers from various parties related to the programme.

The ministry has implemented 1,520 visits to private sector institutions to introduce the programme, in addition to holding 73 workshops for employer representatives.

The programme provides a job contract for one year on the minimum wage (JD260), with the programme set to contribute to supporting companies with an amount of JD150 from the salary for a period of six months to ensure the continuity of the job, regardless if the salary is JD260 or higher, Stetieh said.

“The salary support from the Social Security Corporation supports operating costs to increase competitiveness and job sustainability,” he continued.

Stetieh also noted that the ministry is aiming to include non-profit and cooperative associations in the programme as well, emphasising that this programme differs from the existing programmes, with the goal of creating immediate job opportunities for young Jordanians, not to solve the problem of unemployment completely.