credit: George Sahhar, Al Nasher PR
Fadi Salahat, a FORSA intern in wheelchair, with other interns and engineers
In developing countries, a lack of work opportunities causes skills to languish, frustrates graduates, and is an overall drain on the professional development needed to pull societies out of poverty. To respond to this issue, a USAID internship program offers recent Palestinian university graduates paid entry-level positions in Agency-funded projects in the fields of engineering, IT, business management, and architecture.
The theory behind the six-month program, called FORSA, is to help fresh graduates bridge the gap between the theoretical materials they studied in classes and the work world outside the classroom walls.
Many of the 77 interns who have participated in the program since it began in May 2010 would never have dreamed of such a chance. Fatmeh Awwad, one of the 30 women in the program, is one of them.
While Awwad studied engineering theory at her university, FORSA provided practical experience through work on construction of a water project—an experience not typically available to women.
Awwad says she is confident that the internship will provide her with a boost in the job market. “I am now sure I will find a job precisely because the FORSA internship gave me hands-on experience,” she said.
Engaging Youth in State Building
FORSA, which means “opportunity” in Arabic, strives to engage young Palestinians in the development of the Palestinian territories as a viable state. The program—implemented in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing—began with a seven-day training course where interns learned communication skills, team work, time management, leadership, work ethics, goal setting, resume writing, and interviewing techniques. The program also included a one-day orientation describing some of USAID’s current projects to aid Palestinians.
Following the course, the interns were sent to the field to work with American and Palestinian companies that implement USAID-funded projects.
Program graduate Fadi Salahat had been unemployed for six months after trying to work in Nablus, in the northern West Bank. Childhood polio had left him wheelchair bound, and the building where he had previously worked had no elevators. Reaching his sixth floor office every day was an arduous task.
As part of the intern program, Salahat was assigned to perform data entry for a U.S. construction company in Ramallah, which he says was very beneficial. In addition to the practical know-how in his specialized field, his English and communication skills improved and he learned more about USAID regulations and its infrastructure assistance offered to Palestinians.
“I learned a lot under the FORSA program,” Salahat said. “I can approach the job market with a fresh perspective with the great opportunity that USAID has given me.”
Judging by trainees’ enthusiastic responses, the program has proved to be an innovative solution to rising unemployment rates among recently graduated Palestinians.
Bassam Refai, deputy director of USAID’s Water Resources and Infrastructure Office, describes FORSA as a unique program that “creates local, long-term internships with American firms and helps transfer American engineering and construction know-how to recent Palestinian university graduates.”
By strengthening the confidence and market skills of young graduates, and encouraging local design and construction capacity, USAID supports the meaningful involvement of recent graduates in building a better future for the Palestinian territories, he added.
credit: MWH
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FORSA interns in blue hats with a mentoring engineer at a West Bank road site
