Empowerment programme boosts young Jordanian woman’s business project

AMMAN — Weeks into co-founding a business project with her friend, Saja Beltaji, 21, realised that she needed improve upon her marketing skills. 

Beltaji and her friend set up a page on social media named “Caramel” to promote and sell their product: Innovative gifts designed from sweets.

She was one of 15 young men and women who have been recently selected by CARE International in Jordan to undergo practical training on marketing, customer relations and other market-tested strategies.

The youth empowerment programme, implemented in cooperation with the private sector, aims to provide young people with the necessary professional skills to help them enter the labour market and set up their income-generating projects.

Beltaji said that the training she is now receiving at an Amman-based business academy is vital in enhancing her marketing and customer services skills.

“Through this training I have acquired a lot of expertise in dealing with clients and applying the right marketing techniques,” she said

Beltaji, now a student of psychology and family guidance at the Al Balqa Applied University, said that she has better career prospects and self-confidence thanks to the training.

CARE International is implementing the youth empowerment programme in cooperation with the private sector. The programme, which targets a group of young people from Amman, Zarqa, Karak and Mafraq, promotes entrepreneurship and private sector engagement and help young people build their personalised network of support. 

Under the programme, the targeted group is offered specialised training on customer service, telemarketing, accounting, human resource management, office management and information technology and translation.

(CARE Jordan contributed this article to The Jordan Times).