World Bank Funded Education-to-Work Transition Project

Project Summary 

The Education to Work Transition Project (E2WTP) Development Objective seeks to improve the education to work transition of young Palestinians attending participating tertiary education institutions (TEIs). The project supports: (i) fostering partnerships between TEIs and employers in order to make TEIs’ study programs more relevant to the needs of the labor market; and (ii) enhancing the capacity of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) and TEIs to collect, analyze and disseminate data collected through the TEIs’ graduate tracking system to monitor the outcomes of TEIs’ study programs, and to inform education policy formulation and implementation.

The World Bank’s funded US$5 million grant is to support ongoing efforts to increase job opportunities for Palestinian graduates. The additional financing for the Education to Work Transition (E2WT) project will focus on improving the employability of Palestinian students graduating from tertiary education institutions, thus improving their job prospects as well.

The main beneficiaries of the proposed Project are students and faculty members enrolled or teaching in the selected study programs of participating TEIs. The project will also benefit participating TEIs and employers through improvement of study programs and teaching practices which in turn should facilitate for employers the hiring of better prepared workers

The project development indicator: The first batch of graduates benefit from the project show comparatively better labor market insertion rates than their counterparts in the same programs the previous year. The initial cohort of graduates benefiting from the project is the first for whom it is possible to evaluate labor market insertion rates and, therefore, generate evidence on progress towards the project objective of reducing the graduate unemployment rate.

Project Approach 

E2WTP consists of three components: (i) an education to work transition competitive grant facility to TEIs through the existing Quality Improvement Fund (QIF); (ii) a tertiary education graduate tracking system; and (iii) support for project management and coordination.

Project Activities 

The Education to Work Transition Project would sustain the parent project achievements and expand the opportunities for TEIs and private sector companies to establish successful partnerships and increase the number of student beneficiaries. Project activities include;

1. Establishment of sustainable international partnerships, both with tertiary institutions and with the private sector abroad. The experience of the current E2WTP has demonstrated that an exchange with projects and institutions abroad has had a significantly positive impact on partnerships and teaching and learning methodologies. Thus, this dimension will be encouraged and considered a plus in the applications to the grants cycle issued by Quality Improvement Fund.
2. Establishment of research partnerships with international educational institutions to support the development of research capacities in the West Bank and Gaza, assuming that research can open new markets and thus create jobs. The research dimension of international partnerships will also be encouraged and therefore particularly valued.
3. Encouraging partnerships between the private sector and several Palestinian TEIs providing educational programs in the same sector, particularly partnerships between stronger and weaker TEIs that can be promoted through additional QIF grant cycles. On one hand, this will increase the chances of Colleges to be successful in accessing QIF financing; on the other hand, a cluster approach to partnerships across institutions in the same sector will help mainstream innovation across the sector and make a difference in terms of sustainability, cultural change, and long-term impact.
4. Encouraging and strengthening activities to develop capacities of supervisors and mentors in companies that provide internships for students and/or participate in graduation projects.
5. Strengthening of activities to raise awareness among relevant private sector companies about possibilities and benefits of collaborating with TEIs in education. Current QIF projects show that educational programs that target labor market segments dominated by small family businesses face considerable problems in attracting a sufficient number of companies to cooperate in training through internships.