PM visits Business Development Centre over vocational training

AMMAN — Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Monday stressed the importance of changing citizens’ views on work in the vocational sector, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Mulki said that, since its formation, the government has adopted the income-generating self-employment method as the public sector is not able to absorb more employees, except in technical vocations.

The remarks came during the premier’s visit, accompanied by Labour Minister Ali Ghezawi, to the Business Development Centre (BDC), where he met with the centre’s CEO Nayef Stetieh.

During the visit, Stetieh briefed Mulki on the centre’s achievements in supporting the youth, business pioneering and small-and-medium-sized enterprises.

The premier stressed that craftsmen and people of trade have equal social status, in terms of social regard and income, to that of the public sector’s employees.

He called on the Labour Ministry and the BDC to cooperate in training job-seeking young people, preparing them to enter the labour market and giving them the opportunity to start their own income-generating enterprises, which will be supported by the government through the Labour Ministry.

Mulki stressed the government’s keenness on supporting any ideas or enterprises that would lead to creating more job opportunities for the youth.

For his part, Stetieh briefed Mulki and the accompanying officials on the centre’s achievements, its objectives and success stories.

He said that BDC is a national non-profit institution that works in cooperation with other institutions concerned with vocational training. He highlighted BDC’s implementation of several programmes that target students and graduates of vocational schools, society colleges and universities.

Stetieh noted that some 72, 000 young people in all governorates have benefitted from the centre’s training programmes, of which 52 per cent found jobs.