The first phase of our 12 month intervention inside Syria ‘Skills to Work’ kicked off on the ground in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Rif Dimashq on October 4, 7 and 8, 2026 with over 145 participants taking part.
Skills to Work, conducted in partnership with Glocal Shift and Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair Refugee Education Fund, is a comprehensive project designed to train youth, women, refugees, and marginalized community members across vocational, green, and digital tracks while enabling participants to access employment pathways including jobs, internships, and targeted job matching, as well as freelancing and self-employment opportunities.
Five training groups have already kicked off in the four cities, including sessions on E-Commerce & Digital Marketing and Mobile App Coding in parallel to our team reaching out to potential employers for employment and freelance opportunities for the participants.
As part of our efforts to reach, engage, and attract new potential participants to the Skills to Work project, we conducted orientation and outreach sessions in Aleppo, Homs, and Damascus, these sessions aimed to introduce the program to prospective participants, raise awareness of available training opportunities, and encourage eligible individuals to register and participate. During the sessions, attendees were introduced to Jusoor’s mission, the Skills to Work project, available training tracks, program objectives, expected learning outcomes, and participation requirements. The sessions also provided an opportunity for prospective applicants to ask questions, clarify expectations, and make informed decisions about joining the program. These outreach efforts represented an important step in expanding the program’s reach, engaging potential beneficiaries, and supporting participant recruitment ahead of the training phase.
The job market is evolving rapidly, and our training model is built on a demand-driven approach aligned with real labor market needs through strong private sector engagement. We follow a three-pillar framework consisting of Skill-up, which builds technical and employability skills in high-demand tracks like E-Commerce, Digital Marketing, and Mobile App Coding with an emphasis on practical, hands-on learning and career readiness; Match-up, which connects participants directly to real job opportunities through employer partnerships, internships, and job-matching support backed by ongoing coaching and mentoring; and Link-up, which supports youth to access freelancing and self-employment via digital work platforms, entrepreneurship basics, portfolio building, client communication, and AI tools.
As we celebrate this energetic kickoff for the cohort, our team is already looking forward to the milestones ahead, including continuing high-impact technical training across all locations, closely tracking participants' engagement and progress, strengthening ties with local employers to identify concrete employment and freelance pathways, and actively supporting participants as they transition from skill development into the workforce and income-generating opportunities. We are immensely proud of our participants for taking this bold step toward their professional futures. Stay tuned for more updates as our young innovators code, market, and build their way toward new horizons!
