English communication skills course for Palestine

Freedom of travel and trade are severely restricted across the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and even more acutely in Gaza. This means that many young people are unemployed (around 60% of graduates in Gaza as of 2020), even when highly skilled, able and motivated to work. This negatively impacts the individuals, the families they support, and the OPT in general.

The situation has led many to seek freelance employment in the digital economy, or to start up their own online businesses. However, English communicative competence and digital workplace skills are often barriers to this type of work. A further challenge is a lack of skilled online English trainers with a background in digital freelancing.

The British Council team in Palestine set up the AtPalestine initiative to address these problems by helping to prepare young Palestinians for the digital workplace. LearnJam won a tender to develop a course in ‘English for digital Freelancers'