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Livelihood planning and career guidance in Palestine and the broader MENA region

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Abstract

It has often been stated that the Arab “world” is faced by a demographic challenge which is very different to that of many countries in the global North. As the Arab Spring has shown, youths across the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are keen to make a mark, and despite the internal conflicts and contests for power and influence, many young leaders are hoping to establish new forms of social cohesion which could lead to peace and prosperity within a globalised, interconnected world. This paper focuses on one aspect of the relationship between Arab youth and society, namely the difficult transition between formal education and employment. Drawing on, among other sources, a comparative study carried out across eight Arab states, the role which career education and guidance can play in the process is examined. This is followed by a case study of Palestine where, despite very challenging and difficult political and economic circumstances, significant and promising efforts have been made to help young people develop the life skills needed to engage with schooling in ways that do not only enhance learning, but also facilitate access to work and to self-employment. The paper argues that while career education and guidance (CEG) cannot possibly be expected to solve the disconnect between education and work, it does have a role to play in enhancing learning, in supporting transitions, and thus in contributing to both social and economic development goals.

Résumé

Programmation des moyens de subsistance et orientation professionnelle en Palestine et dans la région MENA – Il est fréquemment mentionné que le « monde » arabe est confronté à un défi démographique très différent de celui de nombreux pays dans l’hémisphère Nord. Comme l’a montré le Printemps arabe, les jeunes de la région couvrant le Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique du Nord (MENA) tiennent à faire entendre leur voix, et malgré les conflits internes et les luttes de pouvoir et d’influence, un grand nombre de jeunes chefs de file ont l’espoir d’instaurer de nouvelles formes de cohésion sociale susceptibles d’apporter la paix et la prospérité dans un monde planétarisé et interconnecté. Le présent article se concentre sur un aspect de la relation entre la jeunesse arabe et la société, à savoir la difficile transition entre enseignement formel et emploi. À partir entre autres d’une étude comparée menée dans huit États arabes, l’auteur examine le rôle potentiel de l’orientation professionnelle dans ce processus de transition. Cet examen est suivi d’une étude de cas sur la Palestine qui, en dépit de circonstances politiques et économiques particulièrement complexes et difficiles, a déployé des efforts significatifs et prometteurs pour aider les jeunes à acquérir les compétences pratiques nécessaires pour s’engager dans une scolarité, qui non seulement favorise l’apprentissage mais facilite aussi l’accès au travail et à l’auto-emploi. L’auteur conclut que si l’orientation professionnelle ne peut en aucun cas combler le fossé entre scolarité et travail, elle a certainement un rôle à jouer dans la valorisation de l’apprentissage, en accompagnant la transition et contribuant ainsi aux objectifs du développement tant social qu’économique.

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Notes

  1. See Watts (2014) for a useful overview of these cross-national reviews.

  2. “Career education” also goes by other names, such as “career learning”, “career learning and development”, “career development”, “transition-to-work curriculum”, “livelihood planning”, “life design” and “career management skills”, among others. While there are differences between them, sometimes indicating differences in underpinning philosophies, the terms are used interchangeably in this article.

  3. “Livelihood planning” is a term which I find resonates much more than does “career guidance” in middle- and low-income countries, and with groups from modest and deprived social backgrounds anywhere. “Career” tends to conjure up images of occupations and professions which require specialisation and lifelong development, excluding other forms of engagement with work, more intimately integrated with ways of living (Arulmani et al. 2014). Gideon Arulmani (2009), for instance, in trying to develop an approach to CEG which is more in tune with the Indian communities he works with, draws on the work of Jiddu Krishnamurty and Mahatma Gandhi, who consider “livelihood” as a manifestation of the individual’s potential in the context of community. A “livelihood counsellor” would therefore be someone “who has the skills to allow the context to define the meaning of career along with the capability to understand and optimize traditional occupational structures for the modern context” (Arulmani, personal communication).

  4. The “Youth Enterprise” and “Junior Achievement” programmes are promoted internationally with a view to encouraging entrepreneurial behaviour among young people.

  5. The term “frictional unemployment” denotes a situation where there are jobs on offer in the labour market, but would-be workers who are currently unemployed are either unaware of these opportunities, or do not have the skills that are being requested. “Structural unemployment” refers to situations where the economic system is unable to generate new job opportunities, and hence is caused by deeper systemic problems which cannot be readily resolved.

  6. The same questionnaire was used in this survey as the one developed by OECD for its reviews. For documents related to the OECD project see: http://www.oecd.org/education/country-studies/careerguidancepolicyreviewhomepage.htm [accessed 7 February 2014].

  7. In this article, I refer to Palestine as a “state” rather than as a “territory”, following the decision by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 2012 (GA/11317) to accord the country “non-member observer state” status.

  8. Several Gulf States are also investing heavily in career education and guidance. Gari Donn and Sana Al Balushi (2013) provide details for such initiatives in Oman. Qatar, on its part, is developing Tamheed – a state-of-the-art technology-based career guidance service delivered through a network of 42 career centres (Edge 2013) and poised to support career decision-making across the Arab region. Saudi Arabia is implementing a major career education project led by the National Human Resource Development Fund. The Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates launched a national document for guidance in 2012, and established the position of academic and career counsellor in public schools (Gulf News 2012). This was partly in response to the results of the Arab Knowledge Report 2010/2011 (UNDP 2012), which found that a quarter of all Emiratis polled obtained a “zero” score in “future-planning skills”, negatively affecting life ambitions and career drive. On average, Emiratis scored 4.72 on the future-planning scale, where the required minimum was 12.5.

  9. See http://www.fi.undp.org/content/rbas/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2010/11/24/launching-of-the-first-career-guidance-centre-in-syria/ [accessed 7 February 2014].

  10. See http://www.almanar.jo/almanaren/Home/tabid/37/language/en-US/Default.aspx [accessed 7 February 2014].

  11. See http://www.etf.europa.eu/web.nsf/pages/NEWS_8GCFUM_EN [accessed 7 February 2014].

  12. The use of CEG to “orient” students towards vocational education is a well-documented international phenomenon, but of course raises several issues, particularly if the quality of the educational offer in vocational institutions is poor, and if vocational graduates find limited options and opportunities for dignified livelihoods on completion of their course (see Watts 2013).

  13. As they explain on their website, the Welfare Association (WA) “is an independent non-profit organization established in 1983 by a group of Palestinian business and intellectual figures to provide development and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank including Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, 1948 Areas, and the Palestinian communities in Lebanon.” See http://en.welfareassociation.org/186-MenuDetails-19-At_a_Glance_ [accessed 7 February 2014].

  14. Leaders-Palestine is an NGO which works mainly with youths.

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Correspondence to Ronald G. Sultana.

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This study draws on several sources of data, among them research material collected on behalf of UNESCO and Save the Children. The views expressed in this paper are however the author’s own, and should not be attributed to any organisation.

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Sultana, R.G. Livelihood planning and career guidance in Palestine and the broader MENA region. Int Rev Educ 60, 177–197 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9405-5

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