Palestine has a well-educated youth population, whose potential is stunted by high unemployment rates, lack of local job opportunities and a difficult security situation that severely restricts movement.
The project aims to increase long-term income generation capacity for young Palestinians by accelerating coding skills, developing digital marketing and business skills, and strengthening a self-supporting community of aspiring freelance and salaried tech sector employees.
This initiative builds on Mercy Corps’ established Gaza Sky Geeks tech education and community building experience.
The project’s multi-pronged, long-term approach increases internet-enabled work opportunities by:
- developing technical talent among digital workers and businesses;
- strengthening skills for online workers;
- supporting promising digital entrepreneurs;
- offering cross-cutting support for a safe, inclusive and mutually-supportive community that promotes peer-to-peer learning.
Ensuring widespread and sustainable opportunities requires a holistic “ecosystem” approach that develops an overall enabling environment to support aspiring tech workers with skills and knowledge, a conducive culture and access to resources required for success.
The project aims at ensuring that 400+ Palestinians will receive 3-6 months of training, mentorship and other resources to gain tech-enabled employment, with at least 50% of participants earning income six months post-engagement.
This will result in a leading cadre of globally competitive Palestinian tech workers, who can self-learn and train future Palestinian youth with the long-term result of building Palestine into a regionally competitive hub for digital products and services.
