Training refugees to gain useful skills

Mention the word "mechatronics" to anyone in Syria and you will probably get a blank look in reply. Unless, that is, you are speaking to a Palestinian refugee studying at the United Nations-run Damascus Training Centre (DTC), which offers the refugees some of the most up-to-date job training in the country. Mechatronics is the art of using factory technology and the DTC is the only vocational college in Syria training students in it. Graduates of the two-year semi-professional course are expected to be employed by companies as assistants to engineers, who are being trained at Tishreen University in Latakia. "Mechatronics and graphic design are new courses and they are highly employable," said Fawzi Al-Madfaa, the college principal. "Every year we update our courses and change those that have become less employable." Almost 1,000 students are expected to arrive this for the beginning of the school year. The campus is situated next to the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) field office in Mezze, a modern suburb of Damascus. Gardens and benches stand in front of the three-storey buildings, nearby is an asphalt football pitch. The DTC is one of five centres across the region, which offer training for specific jobs with the aim of boosting employment and alleviating poverty among Palestinian refugees. The other centres are in Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank. This is not just another industrial college – its training is among the best around, the employment rate of its students is high and competition for places is fierce. "Many are from very poor families living in bad conditions. The only thing they can do is get a skill to earn a living so they don't need to be persuaded to apply. We don't even have to do any publicity. Syria does not discriminate against Palestinian refugees – they can do all kinds of work," said al-Madfaa. The college offers two types of training – semi-professional courses for Palestinians who successfully completed secondary school and trade courses for those who have finished preparatory school. More than half the students on semi-professional courses are girls, but they can only study one of the 13 lower-level trade courses on offer – clothing technology – because the job market "does not yet accept female car mechanics or plumbers", al-Madfaa said. The centre has a dormitory for boys and is building one for girls to make sure female refugees from all over Syria have access to courses. The DTC was set up in 1961 with grants from the UK and Germany, and trained 200 students in its first year. The Syrian government donated the land and in return the centre takes in five Syrian students a year. Now the DTC is preparing to continue its expansion with the help of a European Union grant of US $2.5 million at the beginning of 2006, some of which will be used to create three-month courses for those who are not accepted on the longer courses. Palestinian refugee Hadia Shreh, 23, says she got her job as a secretary thanks to the DTC. Hadia followed a two-year vocational course in business and office practise and now works next door in UNRWA’s Project Office, which manages construction projects. "The training was really important in helping me get my job as a secretary," she said. "I learned to manage financial information, touch-type and write letters in English quickly. Now I'm studying translation to get a better job here."