The Goethe-Institut Jordan and its Partners hold a Training Course for Teachers on Entrepreneurship Education and its importance in Preparing Teachers and Students for the Future

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Out of its belief in the significance of entrepreneurship in paving the way into a successful future, the Goethe-Institut Jordan together with the German Institute for Economic Education (IÖB, University of Oldenburg) and in cooperation with the Queeen Rania Teacher Academy and six local secondary schools presented its project “Entrepreneurship in school practices in Jordan”. The project is financed by the German Foreign Departments and aims at establishing cooperative professional teacher training programs in 2020. Teachers should not only be trained to teach economic education and entrepreneurship principles, but also become future trainers for their colleagues.

Building up entrepreneurs will play a great role in the economy of Jordan because they are the business makers who will help solve lots of social and unemployment problems, said Sawsan Zayed, entrepreneurship and business teacher at Islamic Educational College.

“Entrepreneurship means success, it means the future, it means the solution for real life problems that we face. It is something that everyone should know about,” she added.
Zayed was among a number of Jordanian teachers who took part in a five-day training that tackles entrepreneurship at schools in Jordan.

A total of 4 teachers, alongside with 6 trainers of the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, benefited from the digital “Train the Trainer” – event, coming from local schools such as The Ahliyyah School for Girls and The Bishop’s School for Boys, Al Assriyya Schools and Islamic Educational College (Jubaiha and Jabal Amman). Queen Rania Teacher Academy trainers and local teachers will continue conducting the entrepreneurship training in 2021 within the Goethe-Institut project.

Dana Abu Sara, a member at Queen Rania Teacher Academy (QRTA), called on students to lea about entrepreneurship if they seek a bright future.
She recounted that many students prefer to search for governmental jobs where they can secure a “job stability”. “They (students) have to look at the challenges around them as a chance for them to find new ideas”, she added, to be able to come up with their own projects in the future and deal with them.

VITAL SKILLS
Teachers agreed that there are a number of skills they described as “vital” in the field of entrepreneurship, including problem solving, critical thinking and communication skills.
“They have to be creative in solving problems around them,” Abu Sara said about what will be expected from students in the future.
ROLE OF ECONOMIC EDUCATION
Participants noted that economic education plays an important role in bringing about success for a
country.
Amjaad Abu Hilal, a teacher educator at QRTA, stressed that economic education should be one of the major topics taught rather than being a minor one.
Her colleague Randa Dawood echoed her sentiment, describing economic education as a“surviving skill”.
“Economic education is a need to survive in this world,” she added.
BENEFITS OF THE TRAINING

Many teachers agreed that the training as a measure of the entrepreneurship project equipped them with a number of important skills and background in the field of entrepreneurship, like how to
design a business plan and make market analysis.
Dima Hijazin, a design teacher at the Ahliyyah School for Girls and the Bishop’s School for Boys,
expressed excitement over her participation in the training, adding that she had the opportunity to learn how to apply entrepreneurship in the educational system.
“Every problem in our society should be a challenge that can be turned into an opportunity,” she added.
Randa Dawood (QRTA) stressed that the project provided her with a dose of inspiration: “My motivation is to try to make teachers become entrepreneurs and try to transfer these skills onto their students. I was looking forward to teach students not only the knowledge of entrepreneurship but also the skills in terms of problem solving and being creative.”
She described global cooperation as “vital” in this context, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, to learn how to collaborate in solving global challenges.
The German-Jordanian bilateral collaboration on the topic of entrepreneurship marks a step into this direction.

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