Jobs in the private sector are one of the most promising routes to increased employment for youth and women. In Iraq, Qudra 2 cooperates with local companies to support on-the-job training for unemployed youth, which is designed to respond directly to the needs of employers.
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the Qudra 2 programme collaborates directly with private companies to promote private sector employment by providing hands-on training in line with employers’ needs. Partner companies are carefully selected by the programme based on employment demands and their ability to deliver high-quality training. The training is certified by the KRI Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
The COVID-19 pandemic created a massive demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). Qudra 2 partnered with Medical World in Erbil to train forty-five people, primarily women, on industrial mask production. The company employed all forty-five trainees after the training. Medical World is one of the largest providers of PPE in Iraq. During the training, trainees produced an estimated 9.2 million masks!
Qudra 2 and the Awrosoft Company provided technological and soft skills training for forty-four unemployed and vulnerable youths in the IT sector. The training runs for six months and covers sales, resources planning, digital marketing, and mobile applications. More than half of the trainees received employment opportunities after the training.
In Iraq, KRI, the Kurdish Social Development Organization (KSD), in cooperation with Sky Media, AZA companies and Qudra 2 support, responded to the local need for people with dubbing skills. Based on the results of local market surveys conducted by KSD, it was clear that the demand for trained professional dubbers was high Dubbing refers to translating audio or visual content into other languages. Through this collaboration, twenty job seekers have been successfully trained on dubbing skills. These skills enable the trainees to work as dubbing actors for international movies that must be adapted to the local context. The training also covered practical information about finding a suitable job.
Some graduates have started to use their new skills at a TV station in Duhok.
Sky Media, working in the dubbing sector for many local and national TV stations in Duhok Governorate, has offered seventeen graduates short term contracts, with the possibility of extension. In total, nineteen graduates are contracted.
To date, 849 youth have completed training in fifteen different courses in KRI, with 313 already reporting improved employment outcomes. More than 37% of the trainees were employed after the training with an average employment contract duration of 10 months. An additional five courses recently started, reaching an estimated 330 beneficiaries.